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Lessons from White House Tantrums & Tariffs on Handling Bullies
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Table of Contents
Key Points
Trump’s strategy of distraction is working, most people are clueless to 90% of what he is doing
You don’t negotiate with dishonest actors, you leverage their weaknesses to strengthen your overall position and undermine them
Trump’s motivations and rewards are not the same as America’s motivations and rewards
Canada and Mexican response to Tariffs should be stressing their friendship with American’s while targeting sanctions and tariffs at 4 individuals: Donald Trump and the 3 largest (legal) donors to his campaign, Elon Musk, Timothy Melon & Miriam Adelson
All countries which have sanctions on Russia and their oligarchs should start handing that money over to the Ukraine
The person who is shifting the people’s focus of attention is usually the person who wins
Introduction
One of the key lessons we teach at Influence & Persuasion is that the key to convincing anybody of anything, is being able to successfully shift the focus of their attention to where it most benefits you. When you are President of the United States and your goal is to undermine the security of your allies for the benefit of Russia, that means ridiculous distractions.
In this article we are going to briefly discuss how to use persuasion and influence to deal with bullies and dishonest actors. First however it’s important that we provide the context of the current scheme (because if we don’t understand the motivations of the people we negotiate or deal with, we can’t craft an effective response). Additionally Trump is (knowingly or otherwise) conducting a version of the dead cat strategy which is a technique our readers should be aware of.
The dead cat strategy, also known as deadcatting, is the political strategy of deliberately making a shocking announcement to divert media attention away from problems or failures in other areas.
Brief Chronology & Context of Events
So here is the context of current kerfuffle.
It is safe to say that at the very least Donald Trump has been considered a ‘useful idiot’ by Russian intelligence since the 1980’s.
Trump, whose negotiating skills involve negotiating with and surrendering to America’s enemies, from the Taliban to Putin, tried to ambush Zelensky during their meeting at the White House. This failed spectacularly.
Trump, using the White House meeting with Zelensky as an excuse has cut of US military aid for Ukraine.
At the same time Trump has instructed the White House to start drafting documents to lift sanctions on Russia without them having met any of the required conditions.
It appears from intelligence sources that Trump’s current goal is to help Putin try and get the Nordstream 2 pipeline working again.
In a bid to distract from what many American’s would consider more than ‘a little light treason’ Trump went ahead and had Tariff’s imposed on Canadian & Mexican imports.
Unfortunately this distract with gross stupidity, regardless of cost or damage, strategy works far too frequently and once again world leaders have the unenviable task of dealing with an erratic, bad-faith negotiator. His signature "gun-to-the-head" tactics are on full display, and how Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, and Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo handle it offers several important lessons in handling bullies. Their responses hold lessons not just for geopolitics but for business, negotiation, and anyone forced to navigate a world with dishonest actors.
Trump’s Bungled Attack on Ukraine Backfires
In a meeting meant to cow Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy into submission, Trump openly ridiculed him and suggested a peace deal on Moscow’s terms. Predictably, this gambit failed spectacularly. Instead of bending the knee, Zelensky, leveraged Trump and his Vice President’s hostility and childish behaviour in front of the cameras, deepening the support Ukraine’s other allies. Within hours and days of seeing Trump’s blatant abandonment of Kyiv, Germany and France immediately increased military assistance to the Ukrainian. France has also agreed to station nuclear weapons in Germany putting Moscow in striking distance of France’s nuclear armed aircraft. And Europe is now negotiating over rights to rare earth minerals in the Ukraine that the US desperately needs to counter China’s monopoly of their production (something essential for US & NATO defense). Canada responded by providing more munitions to the Ukraine and agreeing to take some of the money seized in sanctions against Russia and give it to the Ukrainians.
The White House meeting itself was a complete disaster—not just diplomatically, but strategically and tactically. What was meant to be an ‘ambush’ on Zelenskyy turned into an embarrassing loss for America’s credibility. From an influence and persuasion standpoint, it was a catastrophe, reinforcing the perception that the U.S. under Trump is an unreliable partner. One not concerned with allies, friendship, principles or even the accuracy of basic facts.
Key Strategy Take Away: When dealing with a dishonest bully, don’t waste time appealing to their fairness or reason. Instead, use their own behavior to rally support from others who share your interests and undermine their medium and long term influence.
Yet consider this from Trump’s point of view and view this through the lens of Trump’s target audience: the low-IQ and/or dishonest MAGA & Republican base. They don’t require nuanced geopolitical strategy—just a simplistic, emotional narrative. By painting contributions to the Ukraine war as charity (they are not) and framing Zelenskyy as unappreciative (he was not), Trump is setting up an excuse for his supporters to make Ukraine the bad guy and thus whitewash the actions of Putin and Moscow.
It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t make sense - we are dealing with a population that is both ignorant and stupid (by stupid I mean they are unable to apply basic critical thinking and comprehension skills). The Trump Zelensky meeting was a loss for decent people everywhere, it was a huge loss for the US and Ukraine strategically and tactically, but it was a win for Trump’s agenda.
Where Zelensky and others are failing is to distinguish between what motivates Donald Trump and what would motivate someone who is acting in the best interest of the United States.
Key Strategy Take Away: The personal motivations of someone representing an organization and the best interests of an organization are not always aligned. Know who or what you are trying to influence.