Why Is Donald Trump Appointing All Those People Who Opposed Him?

Many of the politicians in Washington, and the journalists who report on them, are confused by some of the people Donald Trump is interviewing, and appointing, to jobs in his administration. Nikki Haley to the UN?  Governor Haley endorsed Marco Rubio in the primaries and then, after he dropped out, said she hoped Ted Cruz would win the Republican nomination.  In the fall, she continued to criticize Mr. Trump for things he said.

Then there is Mitt Romney, who Mr. Trump is apparently considering for Secretary of State.  Mitt Romney was one of the leading Republicans criticizing Donald Trump even after he got the nomination.  And yet, here are Messrs. Trump and Romney sitting down for a private dinner.¹  The politicos are confused.  But I think that is because they don’t understand “The Art of the Deal,” so to speak.

I have not read Mr. Trump’s book, but I have seen enough business deals to understand what is happening here.  In business negotiations, people often get upset with the people on the other side.  Sometimes, the bigger the deal, the more upset they get.  There are ultimatums, threats, yelling, name-calling, and more.  The deal that doesn’t have at least some of these is the rare one. 

But, and here may be the key to what we are seeing in what Mr. Trump is doing, once the deal is signed, everything is different.  I cannot count the number of times I have seen people switch from yelling and screaming to acting like bosom buddies and long-lost friends as soon as the deal is signed or closed. 

Once the deal is done, everybody is friends again, at least most of them.  Much more so than in politics, especially the bitter, partisan-riven politics of today.  Which may be part of why so many politicians and journalists in Washington don’t understand what they are seeing – because they don’t know anything about business.
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¹ Closer to home, Todd Ricketts is going to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce.  While Todd Rickett’s father, Joe Ricketts, spent a bunch of money supporting Mr. Trump, he spent more opposing him.  He spent enough that Mr. Trump specifically called out the Ricketts family in his meeting with the editorial board of The Washington Post in March, talking about what a bad job they were doing running the Chicago Cubs.  Apparently, Mr. Trump doesn’t know any more about the Cubs than a certain former senator from New York.