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For Tyrants, the Truth is Just a Bargaining Chip
How Trump, Putin, and other strongmen use a common negotiating strategy to increase their political power
Back in law school I took a course in alternative dispute resolution that included units on arbitration, mediation, and negotiation. We learned various negotiating strategies and had the chance to put them into practice in a negotiation competition at the end of the term.
I’ve been thinking about those lessons lately as I watch how Donald Trump handles various issues from the war in Ukraine to “Signalgate,” in which top members of his administration divulged sensitive military plans to external parties — including a journalist from The Atlantic — over a private messaging app.
The common thread in these and other instances is Trump’s use of a negotiating strategy called “anchoring,” which involves staking out a relatively extreme position in the hopes of pulling your negotiating partner closer to your desired outcome. In a real estate transaction, for example, the buyer might offer much less than they’d ultimately be willing to pay, or ask for other concessions, in the hopes of getting a favorable counter-offer.
We know from his days in business that Trump is a big fan of anchoring. In The Art of the Deal, he says:
