There is a pattern in many of President Trump’s interactions with other world leaders. We could call it “the art of flattery” — and they are dishing out a huge amount of it.
When UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the White House in February, he brought a letter in his suit pocket. It was a formal invitation from King Charles III for a rare second state visit, presented to Trump with rhetorical flourishes in the Oval Office. “This is really special. This has never happened before,” Starmer said.
“This is unprecedented, and I think it symbolizes the strength of the relationship between us. So this is a very special letter.”
Then, in July, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought Trump another letter, which he said he had sent to the Nobel Committee.
“It’s a nomination from you for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is well deserved and you should receive it,” Netanyahu told Trump. Trump has long coveted the Nobel Peace Prize and responded with a “wow.”
Two days later, at another White House event, leaders from several African nations agreed, prompted by a sympathetic journalist. Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, the leaders said.
The president has shown himself receptive to both honors, thanking Starmer and Netanyahu. But there is strategy in the flattery, and it looks very different from Trump’s first term in the White House. During his first term, world leaders were skeptical and distant from Trump’s authority. Now, in his second, they are more subservient.
“He’s back and he’s powerful,” said Kurt Volker, a career diplomat who served during Trump’s first term and now, among other post-government roles, serves as a member of the Center for European Policy Analysis, a nonpartisan public policy institution. He described the thinking of European leaders in particular: “He can do things we like or don’t like, so we’d better make sure he does what we like.”
And Trump isn’t just receiving more flattery, he’s getting results, Volker said. He points to the NATO alliance members’ pledges to spend 5% of their GDP on defense by 2035, pledges that Trump helped secure at the NATO summit in The Hague in June.
“And part of that is the Europeans mobilizing to do what they should already be doing,” Volker said.
The White House highlights the number of leaders who have come to Washington to meet with Trump, including repeat visits. The total is 23 so far, with many of them coming to the White House in hopes of securing a favorable deal. Trade deal with lower tariffs. That’s far more than what Presidents Biden and Obama achieved in their first six months.
“The results speak for themselves: the president’s trade deals are leveling the playing field for our farmers and workers, trillions of dollars in investments are flooding into our country, and wars that lasted decades are ending — making the whole world safer and more prosperous,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement to NPR. “Foreign leaders are eager for a positive relationship with President Trump and to participate in Trump’s booming economy.”
There is another explanation. These leaders “have sized up the man,” said Ivo Daalder. He is a senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center and served as U.S. ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration.
He says Trump clearly wants to be seen as a winner, as a singularly important figure who achieves things others can’t.
“So flattery and saying he’s the best, that he’s the only one who could have achieved that outcome at this summit, aims above all to ‘Keep him on your side,’” Daalder says.
Last weekend, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made a point of praising Trump before discussing the final details of a trade deal, calling him a “tough negotiator.” Then she copied straight from Trump’s playbook.
“If we succeed, I think it will be the biggest deal each of us has ever closed,” von der Leyen said. Later, when they announced that a deal had indeed been closed, Trump proudly repeated von der Leyen’s phrase about it being the “biggest deal ever closed.”
Just like many of the trade deals announced by Trump, many details of the EU-U.S. deal remain quite opaque. But for Trump, they are all victories, and he, as lead negotiator, is the central protagonist.
This is another change from the first term, when Daalder says many leaders tried to work with Trump’s secretaries of state or national security advisors. They were seen as “guardrails” or advisors who could persuade Trump to achieve a certain outcome. But Daalder says that largely didn’t work. Trump was and is the decision-maker, and foreign leaders and diplomats have figured that out.
“Only he decides. And that means you have to negotiate with Trump to get any deal,” Daalder said. “And the only way to get a good deal is to flatter him.”
In the case of NATO, the flattery was fruitful. Trump has long doubted the mutual defense alliance. Before the most recent summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte sent Trump a fawning message, which the president posted on his social network, Truth Social.
“You’re achieving another huge success in The Hague tonight,” Rutte wrote. “You’ll achieve something no American president has in decades.”
Getting NATO alliance members to agree to spend 5% of their GDP on defense was a big win for Trump and the alliance, which Rutte reiterated when the two met in person.
“It’s absolutely true,” Rutte said. “I want to make it clear here that without President Trump, this wouldn’t have happened.”
This was the same appearance where Rutte seemed to refer to Trump as “daddy,” something the president and his merchandising machine latched onto.
“I think he likes me, if he doesn’t, I’ll let you know,” Trump said about Rutte when a reporter asked about the father reference. “He did it very fondly. ‘Daddy, you’re my daddy.’”
This episode also proved that “a lack of shame is really a superpower,” said Justin Logan, director of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. He sees Trump’s leadership style as very personal and personalized, sometimes even “primitive.”
“Nothing is forever. You can go from Trump’s good list to the bad list and back with some quickness,” Logan said. “That’s what really unnerves. So I think the lesson here will be: keep praising, even if it doesn’t look so good.”
For some of these leaders, there have been political consequences at home. In many countries, Trump remains an unpopular figure and leaders have been criticized for their over-the-top praise as they work to win him over.
Source: npr.org by Tamara Keith, Saige Miller