Trump's Week That Was: Deals, Claims and Downgrade

Donald J. Trump has a mastery over occupying attention, verbalising to dominate discourse. Trump explained his approach in The Art of the Deal: "I play to people's fantasies. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular."

- SHANKKAR AIYAR Author of The Gated Republic, Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India's 12 Digit Revolution, and Accidental India ([e-mail])

As the world grappled with uncertainty and his word salads, Trump embodied the political version of the film Everything Everywhere All At Once, an exploration of alternative visions and realities. Trump started the week claiming to be a peacemaker. "My administration helped broker an immediate ceasefire, I think a permanent one between India and Pakistan." By Thursday, active intervention was toned down to passive persuasion, that he helped settle the tensions between India and Pakistan.

Trump's week didn't end well, stained by a no-show by Vladimir Putin, Republicans in rebellion and a downgrade of the US by Moody's. That said, the wizardry was in full display Monday through Friday, as Trump courted the royalty of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE to charm and be charmed. The imagery of flattery, tariff threats, and claims of glory were inescapable across touch screens and living rooms. To assess the success, it is necessary to sift the daylight between hyperbole and reality.

Trump presented Saudi Arabia with a glimpse of the artful dodge, deal-making with a cocktail of geopolitics and geo-economics. The lifting of sanctions over Syria and a photo-op meeting with Syria's Ahmed al-Sharaa, at the behest of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, provided mood music for the parade of deals. Trump claimed the Saudis would invest over $600 billion in the US. Typically, he summed up saying, "We are rocking."