Donald Trump thinks of himself as a dealmaker above all else. For over 30 years, the new U.S. president has criticized his predecessors from both parties for their failure to negotiate good deals for the American people. "We don't win anymore," he lamented on the campaign trail, as he promised to "make America great again."
Trump's criticism may come as news to the U.S. State Department, whose negotiations helped end the Cold War and enlarged NATO, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which helped achieve the World Trade Organization and, more recently, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It will also come as a surprise to negotiators from Russia, Japan, China and Mexico who were on the other end of those deals and who found their U.S. counterparts to be tough and tenacious.
