‘Commie Week’ – Trump Keeps His Friends Close and His Enemies Closer

Any space alien arriving on Earth from another galaxy this week could be forgiven for concluding that Donald Trump is some kind of communist or socialist. Indeed, in the space of two days, the leader of the free world has greeted with open arms the leader of the most powerful communist nation on Earth as well as the spiritual leader of the socialist movement in America and mayor of its largest city. 

Xi Jinping and Zohran Mamdani are both hardened collectivists, though of rather different stripes. One rules with an iron fist over a superpower populated by 1.4 billion people while the other espouses socialism in the much smaller pond of New York City. But they are arguably the two most prominent collectivists in the world. So why is President Trump treating them so warmly, as he did with North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un in his first term, when they stand against almost everything he espouses?

Trump and the Art of the Charm Offensive

Well, you have likely heard the expression about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. You want to keep your friends close because you like and trust them, but in the world of politics, you need to keep your enemies even closer. Proximity allows you to probe their minds in the back-and-forth of direct or face-to-face discussions. You can appeal on a personal basis, man to man, rather than focusing on your stark ideological differences. In other words, you can try to get your adversary to like you, which Trump has evidently succeeded in doing almost as effectively as he caused some traditional allies to hate him. But that is the essence of Trump, isn’t it? Keeping people off balance, doing the unexpected, throwing away the playbook, relying on charm. The art of the deal.

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Mamdani, who appeared charmed by Trump when the two met in the White House shortly after he took office, looked almost stone-faced this time after meeting with Trump at Gracie Mansion, the longtime home of New York mayors. He did not appear to enjoy having to meet again with the president he bitterly opposes, this time in order to try and secure the federal funding necessary for a high-priority, low-income housing project in Queens. The president, on the other hand, skipped right over their political differences, appearing buoyant and saying Mamdani has a chance to be “a great mayor.” Of course, the two men have a common bond, namely the welfare of New York City, beloved by both of them.

At the same time, the president has always touted the notion that he has “a great relationship” with Xi Jinping, notwithstanding Chinese repression and expansionist aims on top of military and commercial subterfuge. In hosting the Chinese president with great pomp and circumstance – starting with a personal greeting at Joint Base Andrews and a 21-gun salute – the president was attempting to create an atmosphere of respect and cooperation. Of course, once behind closed doors, we know Trump is adept at dropping the hammer. But the point is, why inflame someone, anyone, with whom you are preparing to negotiate? You might recall when the media attempted to coerce the president into condemning Vladimir Putin as he prepared for hard negotiations with the Russian strongman, but Trump would not bite.

It stands in stark contrast to Joe Biden, who, for example, attacked longtime ally Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the murder of a journalist, saying he would “make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are. There's very little social redeeming value of the – in the present government in Saudi Arabia.” After that, relations were, to say the least, strained until Trump returned to the White House ready to talk. This begs another cliché: that it is easier to get what you want with sugar than vinegar – whether dealing with friend or foe. Trump knows never to get personal with his criticism. He will call Mamdani a commie, but then say he’s a great guy. He will attack the communist system, but not the individual at the top of the food chain, such as Kim Jong Un or Xi Jinping, knowing that personal insults rarely lead to positive results. He tries to be as kind as possible with the world watching, knowing that even the most brutal dictators are not immune to flattery. 

Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime

As evidenced by the multiple conflicts he has helped to settle across the globe, Trump’s willingness to talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime has positioned him as a fair and trusted arbiter in disputes between India and Pakistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Congo and Rwanda, Cambodia and Thailand, Serbia and Kosovo, and Egypt and Ethiopia. Trump is a world-class negotiator, and Greenland is the latest case in point. You ask for the world – discussing annexing or buying the country – negotiate hard, and settle for what you really needed in the first place, which in this case was permanent security control of the strategically significant country.

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In assessing Trump’s methods of operation, you can ask yourself a simple question: Would you rather have a president who is threatening his adversaries from a distance or talking to them? You will recall that the world started to calm down and felt safer when Mikhail Gorbachev ascended to the top of the Soviet political order and immediately began discussions with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, even as conservatives criticized Reagan for cozying up to the communist leader. Likewise, you may wish Donald Trump would call out the Chinese for COVID-19, massive human rights violations, intellectual property theft, or any number of other critical issues. You may have hoped he would warn of the dire consequences of a socialist mayor in the nation’s greatest city. We don’t yet know what was achieved with the state visit of Xi Jinping or the president’s time with Mamdani, but given his well-earned fame for the art of the deal in both the public and private sectors, and his mastery of the charm offensive, Trump seems to have earned enough trust to offer, to paraphrase Julie Andrews in the classic film Mary Poppins, a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down.