Despite curbing demands on trade and legal settlements, one expert called the results ‘surprising’
President Trump claims plans to take Iran ‘back to the Stone Age’
President Trump gave a national address on the Iran war, threatening to take Iran “back to the Stone Age, where they belong.”
WASHINGTON – Call it the art of bluffing.
A bombing that would return Iran to the Stone Age. This threatens to double the price of imported goods from China. Filing multi-billion dollar lawsuits.
President Donald Trump rushes ahead when launching new policies or trying to intimidate his opponents. But agreements often come after the sails are trimmed.
The commander-in-chief called Iranian leaders “very smart people and very good negotiators” after crafting a peace framework that later collapsed. He touted the “great” trade deal reached after talks with the “great leader” Chinese President Xi Jinping. He then settled the case for a percentage of the amount demanded or a promise to avoid a tax audit.
more: President Trump criticizes politicians and comedians at White House Correspondents’ Dinner
It’s a strategy Trump learned in the bare world of New York real estate development.
“I asked the world for an unprecedented tax cut on the premise that any tax cut would be enough,” President Trump wrote in his 1987 book “Trump: The Art of the Deal.” “To put it in a funny way, it was like a high-stakes poker game where neither side had very strong cards, so both sides were forced to bluff.”
Here’s a look at how he deployed this approach as president.
Iran returns from ‘Stone Age’ to ‘very smart people’ to ‘scum’
President Trump’s comments about Iran range from the bellicose to the complimentary.
President Trump called for “unconditional surrender!” Posted on March 6th. In an April 1 post, he said: “We are blowing Iran into oblivion, or back to the Stone Age as it is called!!!” And in an April 7 post, he said, “The entire civilization will perish tonight.”
On June 17, U.S. and Iranian officials signed a framework to halt bombing, end the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to civilian shipping in exchange for Tehran’s promise not to develop nuclear weapons.
“These are very smart people, very good negotiators,” Trump said.
But when Iran resumed shelling commercial ships in the Strait, President Trump returned to tough dialogue. Speaking to reporters at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, he called Iranian leaders “scum” and “sick people.”
“Honestly, they haven’t seen anything yet. We’ve been nice,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on July 21.
China tariff negotiations range from ‘extremely hostile’ to ‘very friendly’
As the American eagle battles the Chinese dragon over trade, President Trump last year imposed tariffs on Chinese imports that could reach 157% in response to his “unusually aggressive” and “extremely hostile” stance.
“I don’t think that’s sustainable for them,” he says.
However, President Trump repeatedly delayed or rescinded tariffs as he negotiated a trade deal with America’s third-largest trading partner in October.
Upon reaching the agreement with Xi, President Trump said, “I think it was a very friendly meeting.” “For two very big and powerful countries, it was a good meeting. That’s the way we should deal with big, powerful countries.”
Despite negotiations, the government has collected even more tariffs under the Trump administration. According to the Tax Policy Center, the average tariff rate on all imported goods is approximately 9%. According to the Tax Foundation, the average tariff rate in 2024, the year before President Trump’s second term, was 2.5%.
“I think the president sees the tariffs as a starting salvo,” Dave Townsend, a partner at Dorsey & Whitney who represents foreign clients in trade cases, told USA TODAY.
Scott Linthicum, deputy director of general economics at the libertarian group Cato Institute, said that despite threatening higher amounts and ultimately settling for lower amounts, tariffs remain nearly four times higher than they were when Trump returned.
“In the trade area, Trump’s strategy has always been maximalist at first, very public, trying very hard to get everyone to overreact, but then he settles into what he actually wants and the temperature is actually dropping because everyone was expecting the worst,” Linthicum told USA TODAY. “Even if the situation worsens, there is some sense of security that the worst doesn’t happen.”
President Trump warns of China’s election interference, but admits the US is also interfering
Another clash occurred on July 16, when President Trump released a set of declassified intelligence documents accusing China of trying to undermine the 2020 election. But days later, he downplayed the threat and said the two countries were interfering with each other.
President Trump accused China of stealing 220 million voter files from states across the country in what he called the “largest election data breach in history,” but election experts said states were selling the information.
Trump also said in his prime-time televised address that China tried to influence American business leaders “against” him during his first term and paid journalists to write negative stories about him.
“The Chinese government wanted the president of the United States to lose the next election, but they wanted me to lose because they knew I was smart for China,” Trump said.
But when asked by reporters on July 21 about the impact on China, President Trump downplayed the threat, suggesting the U.S. government was doing the same with China.
“We’re going to talk to them about that. That was a long time ago,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I think China is a little different now than it was then. But look, they’re doing it, and we’re doing it to them. Let’s be honest. We’re doing it to them, too. It’s not a one-way street.”
President Trump emphasizes importance of Supreme Court justices, ignores losses
Mr. Trump pushed the Supreme Court for his priorities of imposing tariffs and restricting birthright citizenship, but ignored the losses in both cases.
President Trump said in December that a ruling against him in the tariff case would be “the greatest threat to America’s national security in history.”
“We failed!” Trump added in a Jan. 12 social media post if the courts overturn the tariffs.
But after the Feb. 20 decision, President Trump acknowledged there were other paths to tariffs.
“Yes, I have another way to impose tariffs, but it’s much slower and more cumbersome than one that was ruled ‘illegal’ or ‘unconstitutional’ in a narrow decision with three strong and precise dissenting opinions!” he said on social media on May 10.
In another major high court defeat, President Trump argued in a June 11 social media post that the country “cannot live with the shackles of birthright citizenship,” and that it is neither economic nor sustainable. He emphasized the importance of this case by becoming the first sitting president to attend oral arguments.
But after the court ruled against him on June 30, his last day in office, Trump said another ruling released the same day was more important because it affirmed his authority to remove the head of an independent agency.
President Trump said in a social media post on June 30 that the loss of birthright citizenship “can easily be compensated for through legislation in Congress.”
Billion dollar lawsuit settled for millions of dollars, but still ‘stunning’
Mr. Trump frequently appeared in court before he was elected president, but his day job did not lead to multibillion-dollar lawsuits. But in some high-profile cases, he settled for millions of dollars (less than two-tenths of the amount sought) or agreements to avoid future tax audits.
For example, President Trump filed suit against ABC in March 2024 after inaccurately saying that the civil suit against George Stephanopoulos held him responsible for the rape of columnist E. Jean Carroll. In December 2024, ABC agreed to pay President Trump’s library $15 million and $1 million in legal fees.
In October 2024, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit over the editing of his CBS 60 Minutes interview with Democratic opponent Kamala Harris. He settled for $16 million from CBS owner Paramount in July 2025.
President Trump also sued the Wall Street Journal for $10 billion for writing about its relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and sued the New York Times for $15 billion for “defamatory articles” during the 2024 campaign. However, those cases remain unresolved.
Lawyer Lee Levine, who has represented media clients for 35 years, said high costs in litigation are common and not unique to Mr. Trump.
“Lawyers always submit exorbitant amounts of money in lawsuits, usually based on how tired your fingers are when entering zeros on a computer,” Levine says.
The settlement was a victory for Trump, even if the number was only a fraction of what he had sought.
But he said the multimillion-dollar settlement, reached before the case was heard in court, reflected the cowardice of media companies seeking to avoid getting on the president’s bad side.
“The amount of settlements that are being reached on their own is staggering,” Levine said.
President Trump, his two eldest sons, and the company that bears his name filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in January, alleging that a contractor leaked his tax returns to a reporter. The suit says the Trumps have suffered “reputational and financial harm and public embarrassment” and “unreasonable damage to their business reputation.”
but Trump, who oversees the IRS as president, reached an agreement in May that would prevent the IRS from auditing him for past tax liability. The agreement also envisaged a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay back those investigated by the Justice Department, but President Trump withdrew that provision after public outcry and a judge is reviewing the agreement.
“This lawsuit was not brought to vindicate a right, but to manipulate the judicial process,” U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams wrote.
President Trump sometimes settles for a single rather than aiming for a home run.
Some of Trump’s lawsuits have had consequences. Tariffs are being readjusted. However, as the war with Iran intensifies, the assessment of his foreign policy remains unresolved.
In “The Art of the Deal,” President Trump writes about not being too greedy in fiscal negotiations.
President Trump wrote, “If you aim for a home run with every pitch, you’re going to get a lot of strikeouts.” “I try to never expose myself too much, even if it means sometimes settling for triples, doubles, or infrequently singles.”
On the diplomatic front, Trump has shown a willingness to publicly advocate peace and strike deals in a way his predecessors avoided for 47 years, avoiding labeling the two countries as enemies, said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Politics, a think tank that emphasizes military restraint and diplomatic engagement.
But Parsi said Trump’s unpredictability could be unsettling to the other side, giving negotiators uncertainty about whether Trump would support the deal.
“Part of it is that since he made this rant, he’s settled into other things,” Parsi told USA TODAY. “It could make (a foreign leader) more cautious. It could cause them to be afraid of what he might do.”
