“The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead. The best thing you can do is deal from strength, and leverage is the biggest strength you can have.”
That was the principle Donald Trump (or his ghostwriter) set out in The Art of the Deal, published in 1987. Perhaps Trump should have re-read his own book before posting on April 5: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.”
To the untrained eye, that demand sounded just a touch desperate — particularly when Trump failed to follow through on his threats to unleash hellish violence on Iran.