Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 20 – Russians are
now telling a joke about Donald Trump and his language, the careful
consideration of which, Moscow commentator Gleb Kuznetsov says, can go a long
way to explain how Trump approaches the world and why some who assume that he
is on their side may be disappointed.
According to the anecdote, Trump is
asked whether he would like something to drink. Trump replies: “I know
precisely what I want, for only such a man as I, who all his life has concluded
the best deals in history can want in such an outstanding way. And I can say
that you will be happy when you see what I want” (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=58806C2A0A912).
This
case of “Trump lingo,” Kuznetsov says, displays two features of the new
president’s thought: a love for the superlative and an effort to avoid responding
to a specific question.” And it suggests
that “purely semantically,” Trump views politics as a set of “bilateral
relationships” between those who can make deals and wants to avoid more
complicated multi-lateral ones.
It
is from this, the Moscow commentator continues, that arises Trump’s distaste
for NATO and the EU where decisions are made collectively and his preference
for people like the prime minister of Great Britain after Brexit and the
Russian leader Vladimir Putin who are able to make deals on their own.
(In
domestic affairs, Kuznetsov observes, this takes the form of a preference for
one of two kinds of outcomes: putting someone in charge and allowing him or her
to make the decision, and forcing whoever it is to make a deal he likes.)
And
this attitude also explains why the new US president doesn’t want to be
specific. As an experienced negotiator, he knows that if you tell your opposite
number too much about your position, the latter will take advantage of that
against you. Hence, concealment and obscurantism in answering is a good thing.
It
is certainly true, Kuznetsov says, that “Trump lingo is ideal for Twitter”
where everything has to be presented in 140 letters and spaces or less. But it
is less useful for when dialogue is necessary and necessarily prolonged. And
given the complex nature of so many things, Trump will have to find his way
from Tweet to conversation.
And
what remains to be seen with his elevation to the presidency is whether “the
language of world politics will be changed,” something he and Putin may want,
although the latter’s preference for deals is more Machiavellian, “whether the
language of Trump will be replaced, or whether we will see President Pence” in
his place.
For
the time being, one can only wait – and possibly learn from anecdotes.
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