After the disappointment of an overhyped Alaska summit between Trump and Putin on Friday, you can witness the “I told you so” knives coming out, because President Trump didn’t instantly deliver a ceasefire. It justified his detractors, who had insisted that Trump is a fraud in the Wizard of OZ style, i.e., a flawed little man behind the curtain. To them, I say, wait for the second act.
I can virtually guarantee you that whatever you think you know about him is likely wrong. Why can I say that with authority? Having evaluated many of the challenges he has faced since 2015, I’ve come to realize something: he’s neither an ideologue nor an open book. He has a youthfully flexible mind and will try new approaches to fit into his fundamental moral and intellectual ethos. He frequently surprises his detractors.
Here’s what we do know about President Trump:
Like all human beings, Trump has weaknesses. Thus, he does not take losing well, abhors being put into a position of weakness, and has a solid streak of vanity/ego that, at times, can be manipulated. However, he has demonstrably been able to put his weaknesses aside during a negotiation or fight. Ask Letitia James, the Attorney General of NY, what it’s like to fight Trump! I’m sure she would never say it, but she’s got to wonder, might even marvel at how he survived the full weight of the New York legal system and now finds herself the pursued!
The President frequently exhibits an enormous breadth of knowledge, coupled with an ability to find common ground for complicated deals that would seem unbridgeable. His tenacity, coupled with his moral compass (Yes, Donald Trump has a strong moral compass), allows him to persevere even in the face of seemingly impossible situations and to find solutions that at times combine what you might think were unrelated ideas and topics that only he can connect to strike a deal.
Donald Trump is the Art of the Deal in real life. He has an uncanny ability that frequently sees him catching lightning in a bottle. And, he does so, over and over again, to the chagrin of his opponents.
The next most overlooked aspect of Trump is his ability to tolerate pain. He frequently welcomes pain, which he sees as part of the process, ultimately overcoming it through force of will that his opponents can’t muster.
His reputation for being a bit crazy and unpredictable is carefully curated. It frequently puts off his opponents, who have no experience dealing with a personality like his.
I have friends who think his way of operating is put on or a character defect, without realizing how powerful his approach is in practice. Trump always focuses on objectives, frequently bringing the same tenacity to both small and large issues, which often confuses people. Yet, this may be the key to understanding how Trump thinks and acts.
The Left has zero understanding of how Trump functions. They believe that their well-used (and previously successful) tactics, which include pressure, shaming, gaslighting, and the lie, will continue to win for them. Boy, have they been wrong.
Now, Trump faces his most formidable enemy: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. A man not unlike himself in many respects. There are a few defining differences between the two men, though:
- Putin cultivates the belief that he is loved, respected, and invincible. He is not. More than one Russian leader has been taken down and removed from power, and,not by a random assassin either. Putin’s enemies, like his predecessors, are close to him, people with much to lose and who aren’t buying the poppycock he sells his own people about how well they are doing in Ukraine.
- Putin’s ambition is empire building, while Trump’s is arresting our country’s decline and then returning it to its former greatness, which he believes is intrinsically linked to the free world’s success, even its very continuation.
- Putin seeks to dominate people and territory (both his own and elsewhere), while Trump seeks personal responsibility and a limited government that stays out of our citizens’ way. Quite the contrast; don’t you think?
I’d be lying if I knew what Round Two would look like. What I can objectively say is that Putin displayed his cards on Friday. With a contingent of over 500 accompanying him, mostly business people, I could feel the pressure Putin is feeling relative to his economy. Why did he bring them along? Both sides likely knew this was an opening round, with no business deals to be struck that day.
Russia’s economy is dangerously leveraged. Trump’s secondary sanctions could be all it would take to destabilize what’s left of his economy. Oil sales are the only reason this war has continued. Strangle that, and Putin’s greatest enemies will be the people who accompanied him the other day.
People will support a dictator who promises victory and then delivers it, as long as they keep the money rolling in. Russia is perilously close to having a reversal of fortune on that front. The military front is already a disaster from any reasonable analysis of land conquered vs the loss of personnel and material.
Things can change very fast in war. Keep watching that balloon deflate. (Russia’s economy and war-fighting ability) If that metaphorical balloon deflates, Putin’s least worry is losing the war; his very life backs his gambit.
God Bless America!
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Author, Businessman, Thinker, and Strategist. Read more about Allan, his background, and his ideas to create a better tomorrow at www.1plus1equals2.com.