A decision by Donald Trump to hop on his Truth Social account at 2AM and complain that negotiating with China on trade policy is proving difficult is only making the job harder, according to one MSNBC analyst.
In the wee hours Wednesday, the president fired off a series of posts and, in one, he complained, "I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!"
According to MSNBC's Zeshann Aleem, Trump's late-night complaining is the type of "emotional" response is indicative that he is playing a losing hand, he knows it and he's preparing his supporters for a bad ending.
After writing, "The point of the talks is for the two largest countries in the world to find a way to de-escalate from a tariff tit-for-tat that amounted to a mutual trade embargo, which could wreak havoc on both their economies," Aleem added, "But to the extent that Trump wants to extract concessions from China during the talks, it is important that he maintains a poker face. Posting in the middle of the night about how tough your rival is as you're negotiating — potentially preparing the public to accept a bad deal — is the opposite of that."
According to the analyst, Trump's "compulsive" late-night admission indicates a state of mind that China will factor into their end of the negotiations, giving them an upper hand.
Suggesting that Trump's post is a sign that he is "potentially preparing the public to accept a bad deal," he added, "If Trump appears liable to caving pre-emptively, that could in turn make Beijing less likely to make significant concessions to him. In other words, Trump's compulsive posting about his mood about deals could undermine his ability to actually execute them."
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