Donald Trump's negotiation strategy

Donald Trump is known for being a tough negotiator and businessman. Without taking a political stance, it is interesting to examine the negotiation techniques and strategies used by the American president to achieve his goals.

Let us analyse Donald Trump's negotiating strategy through the lens of the psychology of influence, and in particular technique known as «door in the face» (DITF).

This technique consists of first make a very excessive request, with the aim of having it rejected, then to make a more reasonable request, which then seems acceptable by comparison – and which was in fact the real objective from the outset.

Trump «thinks big» He often asks for much more than he really wants to achieve, in order to be more successful in achieving his real goal afterwards.

This method exploits the principle of reciprocity After rejecting an initial excessive request, people often feel compelled to compromise on the second, more reasonable request.

This also reinforces the consistency at the recipient's end, who wishes to remain faithful to their initial decision.

But this strategy may backfire on the negotiator, especially if the first request is perceived as absurd or manipulative. It is therefore important to ensure that you do not stray outside the ZAP (Zone of Possible Agreement) so as not to completely exit the negotiation.

Studies (Schwarzwald et al., O’Keefe & Hale) show that the effectiveness of the DITF technique depends on several factors: the negotiator's reputation, perceived motivation (altruistic or self-interested), and the relationship between the parties.

If the confidence or the goodwill is absent, this technique can break up, leaving the other party feeling insulted or defensive.

Donald Trump's strategy may therefore generate immediate results, but at the expense of long-term relationships or international cooperation.

Thus, his supporters praise his economic successes, while his opponents denounce the social divisions he causes.

Donald Trump uses many other argumentation and persuasion techniques that we cover in our negotiation training courses. Join our Elite Negotiation training programme to discover them.

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