Trump is a master manipulator… but this time he’s blown it

Donald Trump is still telling the world even a “half baked” negotiator could have negotiated a peace deal between and “very easily”, but now he’s back as President he’s the man to do it. I suggest the opposite is true and that Trump has already blown it.

Without doubt Trump is a master manipulator, king of the mind game.

His modus operandum is to go in big and hard, then row back to achieve what he wanted in the first place, allowing others to think they’ve won. Take the large tariffs he threatened to impose on Canada and Mexico to stop the drug smuggling into the US before reaching a deal – for now at least.

He can skilfully manoeuvre opponents into the position he wants them in too, through a combination of well-communicated grievances, public shaming and needling. It certainly worked to make NATO members put more money into their own defences rather than relying on the US taxpayer, for which his voters back home are grateful.

Some see Trump as a bully, using his leverage to force the hand of smaller entities. The fact is, these methods have proved successful for him both in business and in politics. But I suggest that is about to change.

The – conflict is a far cry from a property deal, drugs on the US border or getting countries to pay their way. This is about sovereignty, historical enmities and long-lasting feuds. These negotiations will require diplomacy, something Trump has shown little sign of being able to do, and rather than that, he has chosen, for this most sensitive of negotiations, to ratchet up his usual routine.

This started with siding with , swapping fact for fiction about the war and Zelensky’s record, then going in hard and demanding a massively inflated percentage of ’s oil and minerals to repay America’s support.

Such actions might be how you would treat a hostile competitor in business, but it is not how sensible countries treat their allies.

Riding high on his presidential win, I fear Trump has seriously misjudged this negotiation. He is overplaying his hand and he is in a rush. We all know he only has four years in office so wants to act fast, but old grievances don’t disappear that quickly.

And as has fought hard not to be taken over by a foreign power, why would it now meekly surrender itself to the US?

At the same time, has been sustaining heavy losses for a long time in the hope that President Trump would be re-elected and wouldn’t support as robustly as . If Trump said to Putin that he would never win this war and the US will make sure of that, however long it takes, then it would be Putin looking for an elegant excuse to stop the war, while Trump would be a hero and earn the everlasting gratitude and respect of his allies around the world.

Trump may be the master of the art of the deal in business, but he still needs to learn that politics and sovereignty are very different disciplines.

I’ll be back…and full-frontal too

Schwarzenegger junior, Patrick – son of Arnie – is causing quite a stir.

In the drama The White Lotus, his biggest part to date (if you will excuse the double entendre), he went full frontal.

Thankfully he works out at the gym with his dad, and has a body to die for, so he is getting attention for all the right reasons.

Hubby tried to put the squeeze on me but I aired his dirty linen on TV

Never agree to something just to be nice, like I did when agreeing to take part in a Mr and Mrs-style questionnaire.

When questioned about who has the worst habits, we each pointed the finger at the other. Husband Phil told the Sky TV studio audience that I didn’t put the lid on the toothpaste. Really, after more than 10 years was that it?

Hayley Palmer, the host, then looked at me to spill the beans. Without missing a beat, cheered on by the audience, I declared that Phil leaves his dirty washing on the floor, doesn’t put the washing machine on and leaves cups by the bed.

He might not pull his weight about the house, but we certainly washed our linen in public that night.

A doctor is a doctor – why bring politics into it?

A doctor is a doctor whether they’re a male or a female, so which politically correct idiot at the General Medical Council thought it a wise idea to allow doctors to have entirely new identities on the medical register should they declare themselves a different sex?

By doing this they have opened a dangerous loophole and provided a legitimate way to erase an entire back catalogue of mistakes and disciplinaries.

To protect patients this needs to be reversed.

Classless deal’s a dog’s dinner

The Welsh government’s preposterous intention to ban greyhound racing must be overturned. This decision was not based on any evidence or logic, but is entirely down to a grubby backroom deal Labour entered into with a Lib Dem Member of the Senedd in order to secure her vote for their budget. No wonder politics has such a bad name!

Back in 2012 when I launched Blue Collar Conservatism with Clark Vasey and my husband Phil, we did so because it was increasingly clear that most Labour politicians wouldn’t recognise a member of the working classes if they tripped over one. The party, once set up to be a champion for the working classes, had become a party of the politically correct, Guardian-reading, sandal-wearing, middle-class intelligentsia.

Greyhounds love to race, and greyhound racing is a long standing part of working-class communities and culture. This is yet another example of how Labour has lost touch with its roots.

Ex Chief Whip book sure to be a hit

Having been the Conservative Party’s Deputy Chief Whip during the historical period of the votes, I’ll be reading Simon Hart’s new book Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip with keen interest.

In it, he apparently recounts tales of MPs demanding peerages, useless ministers, brothels, KGB agents, naked women and an MPs release for cash.

The worst I had to contend with were the sleepers (those pretending to have fallen asleep), the drinkers (those in the bar who didn’t hear the division bell) and the slinkers, the MPs who tried to dodge the most difficult and knife-edge votes by disappearing.

Seems like I was Deputy Chief Whip at the wrong time!