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- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 3
Trump calls for ‘immediate negotiations’ on Greenland, but rules out using force
President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for “immediate negotiations” with Denmark to “discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States.”
But Trump, in an address to world leaders and others at the World Economic Forum, said for the first time that he would not use military force in pursuit of the territory.https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/21/trump-greenland-da...The bazooka worked. The Greenlanders and Danes have said all along that they have no problem hosting more US bases, and they have no problem working with the US to exploit Greenland's resources.
Now, the Pirate King can go back to picking on third world countries that can't hit back.
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 1
"The bazooka worked."
effin Trump is pathetic. So is Congress.
So it is the stock market and the bond market that act as the governor on Trump's insane pursuits. If the markets throw a fit, or
even the semblance of a fit, then Trump does his taco dance.
Oh well, Trump's taco dance is better than Trump's Pedo-Polka
No. of Recommendations: 0
GOOD.
SO WE TAUNT HIM WHEN HE BLINKS AND DOESN'T PURSUE INSANITY.
Sheesh.
Then they wonder why things are how they are.
No. of Recommendations: 7
effin Trump is pathetic.
It's his approach to governance.
I see this with some of my developer clients. In trying to get projects approved, you have to figure out what you're going to ask for. Some clients try to figure out in advance what things are likely to get approved and ask for that. Others, though, prefer to be maximally aggressive - they ask for everything, and don't back down until they might actually lose the project over it.
There are pros and cons to both. The hyper-aggressive approach is riskier and leaves a lot of bad feelings among governing bodies and the community - but it has some merit. You avoid bargaining against yourself, you don't leave any achievable outcomes on the table, and you find out exactly where the limits/maxima are.
Trump's approach is to demand everything, act as if he is entitled to everything, act as if everything he wants to do is legal even if everyone says it's not, until someone actually pushes back. That's been very successful for him in his political career. If you don't worry about what other people say is allowed, but do whatever you want to do until someone actually stops you, you'll do a lot more things. It makes him very popular among his base supporters, because it's very smash-mouth politics and makes him seem like a real fighter. And it also reveals where the true limits of Presidential power actually are, versus where pundits and observers think they are.
This also reminds me of poker play (from back when I used to play poker). A very effective strategy for players is to be aggressive in their betting until someone pushes back against them. Push them every time, and most of the time they'll fold - and even if there's a few times they push back hard against you, it's worth it for all the wins that lead up to it when they don't push back.
No. of Recommendations: 7
The hyper-aggressive approach is riskier and leaves a lot of bad feelings among governing bodies and the community - but it has some merit. You avoid bargaining against yourself, you don't leave any achievable outcomes on the table, and you find out exactly where the limits/maxima are.
But aren't those short-term benefits? Once you have negotiated that way enough times, your counterparties learn that you are difficult to negotiate with and may start choosing not to negotiate with you at all. Projects get rejected out of hand rather than negotiated.
This also reminds me of poker play (from back when I used to play poker). A very effective strategy for players is to be aggressive in their betting until someone pushes back against them. Push them every time, and most of the time they'll fold - and even if there's a few times they push back hard against you, it's worth it for all the wins that lead up to it when they don't push back.
Again, this seems like it will only work in the short term. Once the other players learn that you constantly bluff, they simply start calling your bluff all the time.
I seem to recall some well-known developer in a large city who used this aggressive negotiating tactic consistently over a number of years. After a while no contractors in the city would work for him. They were squeezed so hard so often that working for this developer was not sufficiently profitable for them. So they simply refused to do business with him.
--Peter
No. of Recommendations: 0
But aren't those short-term benefits? Once you have negotiated that way enough times, your counterparties learn that you are difficult to negotiate with and may start choosing not to negotiate with you at all. Projects get rejected out of hand rather than negotiated.
Sure, but typically these types of developers have some strength behind them. They're significantly employers, are significantly connected in the community, etc. It's a strategy you can employ if you have cards to play. Or if you're not a repeat player.
Again, this seems like it will only work in the short term. Once the other players learn that you constantly bluff, they simply start calling your bluff all the time.
You don't constantly bluff. You're aggressive early in the hand, to see whether any of the other players will be aggressive back at you. If they're not, you capitalize on their weakness. If they are, you throttle back.
That also underlies the "TACO" stuff. Trump's not an experienced politician, so he plays things differently than most politicians. For example, if you have a traditional politician who's confronted with making a choice on a half-dozen issues, and that politician wants to figure out which position his constituents/supporters prefer, he'll have an infrastructure in place to find that out - meeting with community leaders, polling, aides that do community outreach, or whatever. But the alternative is to just start doing things and read directly what the response is, and then adjust on the fly. That's what Trump does - he'll follow a path and see if it's working out for him, and if it doesn't then he'll just change.
Normal politicians don't/can't do that, because inconsistency is often fatal in politics. But Trump doesn't care about that - inconsistency is part of his brand, so he actually has the ability to A/B test his policies in real time without having to figure out in advance what will be popular/result in pushback or not. He doesn't have to try to figure out in advance whether he can get away with a 10% tariff or a 40% tariff - he'll walk out the door with 40%, and see if it causes problems, and if it does he can pivot to 10%.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Well, Peter,
maybe Trump is just smarter and way better at leveraging his NYC real estate developer in your face "art of the deal" negotiating strategy than you want to give him credit for.
Great you knew some developer somewhere who wasn't as good at as Trump.
If you and Trump were sitting at a poker table playing Texas Hold em heads up, you would be the sucker at the table.
Not Trump.
No. of Recommendations: 0
No. of Recommendations: 2
maybe Trump is just smarter and way better at leveraging his NYC real estate developer in your face "art of the deal" negotiating strategy than you want to give him credit for.
Great you knew some developer somewhere who wasn't as good at as Trump.
Hie “real estate developer skillz”, eh?
Those skillz really won him some friends in Europe this week- they’ve told him to stuff his offer to buy Greenland and are countering with a new round of tariffs- on us.
In the end, his Greenland gambit will gain him only what he could have gotten anyway just by asking….. except for title to the country
But he revealed himself to the world this week as an incompetent, doddering, bombastic and nasty fool.
The only people who won’t admit to seeing it are those who sold their souls long ago and are now stuck with the bargain they made
No. of Recommendations: 0
Tell Trump yourself the next time you run into him at Davos, buddy.
No. of Recommendations: 0
the next time you run into him at Davos
Run into him with a Hellfire missile. Save everyone time and trouble. Be sure to stand back a bit, to allow the rubble to cool down a bit.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Run into him with a Hellfire missile. Save everyone time and trouble. Be sure to stand back a bit, to allow the rubble to cool down a bit.
In the vein of
Q: what do you call a cruise ship full of attorneys sinking in the middle of the ocean?
A: A good start (apologies to albaby)
The world might be a better place if Elon was also at Davos and a few bunker busters eliminated the entire Davos shindig.
No. of Recommendations: 4
Q: what do you call a cruise ship full of attorneys sinking in the middle of the ocean?
I never thought I would say this, but we need MORE lawyers. Armies of lawyers to jam up the administration in as much red tape as possible.
No. of Recommendations: 2
I never thought I would say this, but we need MORE lawyers. Armies of lawyers to jam up the administration in as much red tape as possible.
Yah... 2 edged sword.
