Trump as the First Deal-Maker-In-Chief: Promise and Perils of the Model

Donald J. Trump ran for president on the claim that he was uniquely qualified to solve America’s problems because of his professed business acumen, outsider status, and mastery of the art of the deal. This profession contains a self-diagnosis of America’s problems: America is suffering because politicians who lack Trump’s business experience have been making bad deals on trade, foreign relations, and immigration. What America needs is the first Deal-Maker-in-Chief.

Few voters could have understood what Trump meant by this during the election. To a contract specialist, however, Trump’s first 100 days suggest an emerging approach to governance, rooted in his idiosyncratic business experience, which deserves closer scrutiny from all Americans. Trump’s model of executive governance through deal-making suggests that he may not be able to serve as a fully functional president. His governing style may also render him especially prone to intolerable forms of corruption.