Trump goes hard to try get ‘deal’s’ that most often do not happen….

This is how he has lived his whole life: promising big things, and creating on-the-edge, “Apprentice”-style drama — then changing his mind.

• He threatened to veto a spending bill that conservatives hate, then signed it.
• He announced stiff tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, then the administration started negotiating tons of carve-outs.
• He talks of war with North Korea, then agrees to meet with Kim Jong-un.
• He muses openly of replacing top aides, including White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, then lets them stay.

How Trump views negotiating, based on conversations by Jonathan Swan and me:

• Unlike most politicians, he sees the “announcement” not as the rollout of a policy, but as the starting point for negotiations.
• The word Trump uses all the time privately, and sometimes publicly, is “flexible.” Everything is up for negotiation. Everything is zero sum.
• And he always needs a scorecard, to know minute-by-minute who is “winning.” With foreign countries like China, his scorecard is the trade deficit.

So the bluff is really just his extreme, gambler’s negotiating style: Make a maximalist ask, frame the debate around that, and go from there, improvising all the way.

• It worked sometimes in his business career but it also failed a bunch, most spectacularly in Atlantic City when his casinos went bust and he temporarily gave his life over to his creditors…..

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