Putin outsmarts delusional Trump again in dealmaking

Donald Trump’s much-vaunted reputation as a dealmaker was always more hype than reality. His book The Art of the Deal was primarily a work of fiction, mostly made up by the ghost writer Tony Schwartz, employed by Trump to pump up his giant ego.

- SIMON WALTERS

Sure, he pulled off a couple of big property deals as a businessman such as New York’s Trump Tower. But much of the success he did have was down to his wealthy father and his most ambitious projects, like the Atlantic City casino, were huge flops. Critics have observed how his enthusiasm for a big building project would suddenly evaporate when it collapsed – and Trump would pretend he was never really interested in it all along, or that it never happened at all.

It is tempting to wonder whether we are witnessing a similar phenomenon in his foreign policy. Having initially boasted he could end Russia’s war with Ukraine within 24 hours of entering the White House, nearly two months later (roughly 1,400 hours and counting) he is no nearer to achieving it.

Trump’s army of fawning apologists like Boris Johnson rushed to his defence at the start, claiming he had to be judged by his deeds, not his erratic words. That there was method in Trump’s madness was the gist of Shakespearean scholar Johnson’s argument. Having seen the catastrophic results of Trump’s methods in Ukraine and also Gaza, Johnson and co are coming round to the view most sane and intelligent people have always had about Trump: he is dangerous, ignorant and weak.