Donald Trump will not be a ‘transactional’ President – that is why no one rushed to assist him in Iran
Why Donald Trump shouldn’t be surprised when he asks other countries to risk blood and treasure to clean up his mess and they turn around and say ‘nah, you’re alright’
Trump isn’t a transactional President, but there is another word for it(Image: AP)
Donald Trump seems genuinely surprised and affronted by the reluctance of America’s allies to row in behind him in Iran.
But he probably shouldn’t be. In fact, it’s been a long time coming.
To recap, Trump bombed Iran without a plan for the most blindingly obvious consequence of his action.
There was no way Iran could fend off an all out attack from the world’s only remaining superpower militarily. But what they could do is cripple much of the global economy by making sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping route for oil and natural gas, incredibly perilous.
Trump, faced with the prospect of a prolonged conflict where the US military struggled to make the Strait safe – and where he wasn’t able to declare a clear, immediate victory – did what anyone would do in this situation. Asked for other countries to come and clean up his mess.
And in response to his plea for clean up there came back a resounding “no thankyou” from the international community.
Why? Well, mainly because for most of them stepping in to fix a mess made by Trump would go down very badly with their populous.
But more fundamentally, because there’s been a misconception about Donald Trump’s nature, and the nature of his second Presidency.
From day dot of Trump 2.0, a word has been used about him that is as nebulous as it is inaccurate: “Transactional”.
Trump’s a “transactional” President, we’ve been told by countless politicians, pundits and experts on TV and radio. He’s a dealmaker. If you want to do business with him, you’ve got to make nice, bring gifts and tell him exactly what’s in it for him.
It’s an easy argument to make until you think about it for five seconds or so. Because Trump isn’t transactional at all. The word ‘transactional’ implies that both sides are likely to get something out of it. And that’s simply not true.
Trump simply has no interest in ensuring an equitable exchange. He’s only interested in what is good for him, his administration and his place in the history books. And while he has an elephantine memory for people who have slighted or opposed him, he has absolutely no memory for who has done him favours or loyalty to those who supported him in getting what he wants.
He repeatedly refers to his claims to have stopped seven, or eight or occasionally nine wars as having “made a deal” – but in reality what he did was put the warring countries in a room and threaten them with eye-watering tariffs until they agreed to stop fighting.
And that, on various different scales, is how he’s conducted foreign policy. Every major concession he’s secured has been under threat of violence or crippling financial penalty.
There’s a word for that, and it’s not transactional. It’s extortion.
But extortion only works from a position of strength. And Trump has been weakened internationally by having tariffs, his favourite stick to wave at international counterparts, confiscated by the Supreme Court.
The second reason for Trump being met with an international shrug is, frankly, inevitable hubris.
His wham-bam-thankyou-m’am overnight invasion of Venezuela gave him an unsustainable boost in confidence.
Like a middle-aged man who just got the all clear from a health scare, Trump felt like he was immortal. Like he could accomplish anything he wanted to, break any international norm, perform mind-blowing acts of skill and endurance….and ultimately that he could wipe Iran off the map without suffering any negative consequences.
To misquote what must surely be one of his favourite films, his ego was writing cheques that his military couldn’t cash. And now it’s all this.
