Watch "Donald Trump's Negotiation Tricks - on YouTube. In this brief clip, the creator discusses Donald Trump's negotiation tactics, emphasizing his use of psychological strategies to gain leverage in discussions.
The video highlights how Trump employs techniques such as unpredictability and creating discomfort to unsettle opponents and gain the upper hand. These methods align with the concept of "power moves" in negotiations, where one party seeks to assert dominance or control over the other. While such tactics can be effective in certain situations, they may also backfire if perceived as manipulative or aggressive.
This isn’t a negotiation tactic in the conventional sense, but it shares similarities with negotiation dynamics, particularly in the psychological and power-leverage aspects. Albeit it is despicable.
For example, when I first saw this on the news, I have to admit that I was outraged. I would hae been had I seen anyone do this, but with Trump, even more so. Mostly because he's a pretty miserable example of a human being.
Honestly, I had wished Macron could have just knocked Trump on his ass. But, of course, he couldn’t. And that’s partly the point, and the problem. Trump has seldom been held accountable for this kind of behavior and so we now have him as President of the United States.
French President Emmanuel Macron met with President Trump at the White House on April 24 as part of a state visit. Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube.
There is one other occasion of Trump pulling this malignant narcissist game on America. Well, just some fool at an event in Oaks, Pennsylvania, on October 14, 2024: Trump dances for 40 minutes during campaign rally: ‘Let’s listen to music’ Ex-president swayed to songs such as YMCA and Ave Maria during Pennsylvania event after two attendees fainted.
People have long wondered what the hell was he doing? I'll tell you. It's this. Read this entire blog today. it details what he was doing. We just don't usually see it done on such a massive scale. Not a single individual as with Larry King, or Pres. Macron, but an entire political rally with just over 3,000 people. But when you consider it was televised, and on the internet, maybe millions?
Trump didn't just do this to Kristi Noem on stage, or just the audience of the MaGA fooled who attended and so dearly love their malignant narcissist. But to millions at large. All of us who saw this happen.
And it's vile. Ever more so when you realize what was happening.
This kind of behavior—like making a demeaning comment about someone’s breath or appearance—mimics negotiation, but it’s not about give-and-take. It’s about establishing a power imbalance from the start. Where healthy negotiation involves mutual respect and compromise, this kind of tactic is one-sided and coercive, designed to shift the emotional terrain in the narcissist’s favor before any actual discussion can begin.
It's less "negotiation" and more preemptive psychological warfare:
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The narcissist frames the other person as inferior or unworthy,
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Which undermines their confidence and makes them more malleable.
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The target is left trying to regain favor, not negotiate terms.
It’s parallel to negotiation only in the sense that it uses interaction as a tool to establish terms—but these aren’t fair terms. They’re about submission, not consensus.
This is more domination than dialogue.
This exemplifies in part why I can't stand Donald Trump. I've met only a few like this, and the feeling when you recognize it right in front of you, directed AT you, for me anyway, is to punch them in the face. But they always pull this when you can't, as in this clip.
My ex when we were dating, refused to see her attorney alone anymore and wanted me to be with her. In court on the day of finalizing her divorce, he leaned over me, sitting in the back row waiting on the case to come up and said to my soon to be wife, "Have you been smoking cigars? Because I thought I smelled them on you."
She tried not to react horrified and said, "No." The thing is, it's always something that seems innocent, but the recipient feels in intent and abuse to an excessive degree. My reaction was that I couldn't understand his game at the time, but I wanted to beat him into the ground because I could feel what he was doing, without fully understanding it. What is this? Well...
It falls under several overlapping psychological and behavioral concepts, particularly within the context of malignant narcissism. But there is often a sexual component to it.
Here are the relevant terms that best describe that kind of behavior:
🔹 Devaluation
This is a classic narcissistic tactic where the narcissist subtly or overtly puts someone down to assert superiority or control. Saying something like "Your breath is very bad, mind if I move back?" is a form of social devaluation—a way to humiliate or embarrass the target while maintaining plausible deniability (e.g., "I'm just being honest!").
🔹 Power Play / Dominance Display
These remarks are often nonverbal signals of dominance masquerading as concern or honesty. It's a one-sided control move—the narcissist asserts authority or distance while expecting compliance without reciprocation.
🔹 Covert Aggression / Passive-Aggression
This is a form of covert emotional manipulation, where the narcissist uses seemingly benign statements to assert control, humiliate, or unsettle the target. These comments often appear socially acceptable on the surface but are emotionally toxic.
🔹 Gaslighting (in some contexts)
If challenged, the narcissist might say, “I was just trying to help,” or “You’re too sensitive,” which twists the situation into being your fault—eroding your sense of self-trust.
🔹 Narcissistic Supply Maintenance
By undermining others’ confidence, the narcissist reinforces their own self-image as superior. These interactions help them maintain "narcissistic supply"—the validation, control, or emotional reaction they seek from others.
🔹 Micro-Aggression (in interpersonal psych)
While this term is often used in racial or gender dynamics, it applies more broadly. These are subtle, cutting comments meant to undermine the target, often under a veil of civility.
A concise label you might use for this behavior is:
"Covert devaluation as a dominance strategy in narcissistic abuse."
As to the sexual component:
Yes—very often there is a sexual component to these behaviors, especially when the malignant narcissist is interacting with someone they see as a potential sexual or romantic interest, or someone whose sexuality they want to control, shame, or undermine. Here's how that plays out:
🔹 Sexualized Power Plays
Malignant narcissists may make comments about a person’s body, breath, hygiene, or desirability in ways that:
Humiliate subtly (“Are you wearing that perfume again? It’s… strong.”)
Sexually shame (“I’m just not into people who don’t take care of themselves.”)
Establish dominance by implying they're the judge of the target’s sexual worth.
These comments are not about hygiene or taste—they’re about control and destabilization. The goal is to provoke insecurity, making the target strive for the narcissist's approval.
🔹 Withholding or Bestowing Sexual Approval as Currency
Sex or intimacy becomes transactional. The narcissist may:
Use withholding of affection or attraction as punishment.
Dole out compliments or flirtation sparingly to keep the target hooked.
Inflict “negging”—an insult disguised as a compliment—to lower the target’s self-esteem.
🔹 Eroticized Shame or Disgust
Comments about breath, body odor, appearance, or even “how someone eats” can carry an implied sexual judgment—often in the context of “you’re not desirable unless you fix this,” feeding the narcissist’s need for sexual control and superiority.
🔹 Projection of Their Own Shame or Desires
A narcissist may also project their own sexual dysfunctions or insecurities onto others, using humiliation as a deflection. For instance:
Making someone feel “unclean” or unattractive,
While hiding their own issues with intimacy, performance, or desire.
🔹 Sexual Sadism Lite
In malignant narcissists, there can be a low-grade, non-consensual sadism—a pleasure in degrading others sexually, even just with words. This is often not overtly sexual, but it’s about asserting sexual dominance.
What about Putin? Has Trump EVER done that to someone like HIM?
Donald Trump has never publicly used demeaning or humiliating power plays like those you've described toward authoritarian figures like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, or Kim Jong Un. In fact, his behavior toward them has often been the opposite—marked by exaggerated flattery, deference, or admiration.
Here's how this fits the pattern of narcissistic power dynamics:
🔹 Narcissistic Supply and Power Hierarchies
Malignant narcissists tend to punch down, not up. They seek control where it can be secured—among those they see as weaker, dependent, or subordinate.
Toward perceived equals or dominant figures, especially those who command real power, they may:
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Flatter excessively (e.g., Trump calling Kim Jong Un "very talented" or saying they “fell in love”).
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Avoid criticism (e.g., Trump rarely criticized Putin’s actions, even when prompted).
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Express admiration (e.g., Trump calling Xi Jinping “a brilliant man” or praising his hold on power).
This isn't respect in the diplomatic sense—it often resembles submission masked as strategic admiration, serving Trump’s self-image as a powerful negotiator.
🔹 Projection of Strength Through Association
Trump has often aligned himself rhetorically with strongmen as a way to borrow their perceived strength. By speaking well of them, he implies a personal parity:
“He likes me. I like him. We understand each other.”
This avoids confrontation and protects his own fragile ego. Criticizing such figures might imply he’s weaker or has lost influence, something he appears pathologically driven to avoid.
🔹 Contrast With His Behavior Toward Allies
Compare this with how Trump treated:
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Angela Merkel (cold and dismissive),
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Justin Trudeau (called "weak" and "dishonest"),
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U.S. intelligence agencies, federal judges, and journalists (routinely demeaned).
This highlights the narcissistic calculus: insult those who can’t fight back or threaten his ego—fawn over those who can.
So while Trump excels at devaluing and degrading those below or dependent on him, he strategically avoids those tactics with strongmen leaders—not because he respects them, but because his narcissism can't risk rejection or inferiority in those dynamics.
So no, I do not like Trump. But it's not much about his politics as I never get to that point of disgust with him. However when you bring in his politics, it just multiplies my distaste for him exponentially.
As I've said many times before, Donald Trump is everything I was raised never to be, or act like.
Compiled with aid of ChatGPT
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