Trump's tariff antics prove he is a terrible negotiator

The Hill

18-04-2025

In 1977, Harvard Law School Professor Roger Fisher published the international best seller, 'Getting to Yes,' after decades of researching the most effective techniques in dispute resolution. He and co-author William Ury's groundbreaking work revolutionized how negotiators approached bargaining in the decades that followed, encouraging practitioners to focus on what he called 'interest-based' solutions rather than traditional power-based approaches, which he believed elongated discussions, destroyed relationships and produced inferior results.
Fisher's work found its way to bargaining tables large and small throughout the nation and beyond, and he taught his mutual gains approach to local bargaining teams throughout the country. I had the opportunity to attend his training during my career as a labor professional and have personally experienced the transformative effect of this method.
It is from this perspective, and my own experiences as a negotiator, that I shudder at every utterance and action of our current president, who represents the antithesis of effective dispute resolution and problem-solving. Whether one subscribes to a Fisher-style mutual gains approach or not, Donald Trump violates every cardinal rule of bargaining.
An effective chief bargainer has the goal of achieving a good result. Any distraction that is contrary to that end unnecessarily entrenches the parties to produce a far weaker outcome. It is for this reason that the sensitive matter of bargaining the country's trade tariffs should be accomplished quietly and tactfully, out of the public view, until effective results can be shared. Trump's obsession with grandstanding, bullying, threatening and boasting about yet unresolved matters may help him assuage his personal dysfunctions, but nothing could be more contrary to effective outcomes.
It is extremely likely that everyone in America will pay more at the store for Trump's verbal assaults on leaders of other nations — in most cases creating adversarial relationships that did not pre-exist. This repeated behavior is an egregious violation of the most fundamental principle of dispute resolution. In contrast, an effective bargainer would be very conscious of the fact that the other side, in any negotiation, reports to someone, whether a legislative body that must agree to the outcome or simply the public at large.
Humiliating or diminishing the other party is a significant unforced error. Consider the position of the leader of another nation returning with an agreement to a new tariff after Trump has proclaimed 'they are all kissing my ass.' In so doing, he instantly creates a belief among the populace of the corresponding nation that they have likely been cheated, regardless of the equitability of the solution. His uncontrolled outbursts often require him to retreat and reverse himself, diminishing his own credibility, protracting negotiations and, ultimately, bringing a higher cost to American consumers.
One of Trump's worst inclinations is to announce his success before he has any to announce. This has resulted in the absurdly erratic, back-and-forth positioning that has plagued the markets this month.
An effective bargainer understands the need for latitude in outcome expectations on both sides. To the degree that expected outcomes are shared at all, the bargainer is best served by creating a non-specific range of results that will not present a trap for either side when the final solution is announced. To declare an outcome prior to negotiation leaves the bargainer with failure by definition, even if a reasonable outcome is achieved that falls short of what he predicted.
Even if Trump had the prerequisite skills to bargain, which he decidedly does not, he would be best kept out of the process altogether until it's time for his victory lap — the one he will surely take whether or not any victory is achieved worth lapping about. All of the details and reversals that have derailed the process and the economy in recent days could have easily been avoided by effective behind-the-scenes negotiations that ironed out differences until a result could be announced.
Trump's antics on so many levels have sought to weaken our most important institutions and diminished the country, but in this case, his uncontrolled behavior and lack of discipline will cost everyone more in very real dollars.