Trump’s Tweets – Relax Already

Trump surely shoots out more tweets than other politicians. Pretty soon others will understand and will catch up.

An engineer might say Trump’s SNR is a lot lower in a good way. In other words, he shotguns out a lot of things which allows him to later claim, “I said it” or “I led it” or “I caused” at an appropriate future time (or ignore that he ever said it). He also gets immediate feedback from millions of people. News media are so used to politician saying nothing but mealy petting to voters that they don’t know what to do. Trump is the opposite – everything is said, so he has on the table all the tools to own the conversation, negotiate, and affect the outcome. He’s all about full disclosure and then negotiating with the tidbits that have been sprinkled around the political landscape. You just have to ignore the noise and look at the big picture.

The F-35 F-18 tweet thing is brilliant. I know how the DOD acquisition system is built so that the cost of the F-35 will / must spiral upwards. It’s how the game is played on both sides. He knows the ~only~ thing that ultimately drives down cost is raising the specter of competitors and contract pulls. Cancel a contract and pay the exit fees? He’ll do it in a heartbeat if he thinks it’s better — or at least he has you believing he will. He’ll even ask Boeing to price out their F-18 to cover the costs of canceling with Lockheed. He GETS IT that the government doesn’t need a raft of employees doing “min cost” “should cost” or some other budget hoopla – the government can let the companies work it out so long as the government employees have the intrepid desire and motivation to make decisions that matter.

Notice the stroke to Boeing about the F-18 is right on the tails of him slamming Boeing for the expensive presidential 747. With this double-tap communication thread, he is messaging that he doesn’t care who you are – he isn’t out to pick on Boeing, but he will slam someone or support someone based on what they do and provide. This has been the stated ultimate goal of the acquisition community for years – and they haven’t figured out how to do it yet. Maybe something can be learned from Trump.

Next up: if he can do this with the government personnel system, he will have set excellence into the infrastructure of our nation’s government. That system is so entrenched, I can’t fathom a way out of the bureaucratic inertia. But Trump, with 140 character tweets, seems to creatively (or intuitively) smash through what others would take 5 years to study how to accomplish. Maybe he’ll do this, too.

And Russia? Trump is not in the pocket of Russia, but he is ~like~ Russia. Their culture and their way understands him. His showmanship. His gold gilding. That’s what Russia does and is. Is Trump worth $3B or $10B? Don’t you see that’s the SAME issue that Russia is living? They know this man and can “relate to him”.

Notice how Putin did not push back at Trump’s nuke comment. Just like I watch farm cats with their pecking order and priorities on who gets the food dish first, Putin’s news release the next day was very matter of fact and determined: “Of course the US will have more and better. We know that. I said we will have more and better than any aggressor. That was an important word – aggressor.” He was basically backing away from the food bowl and letting American be #1 in this area, while *at the same time* pointing out that he is not accusing America of being an aggressor, while *at the same time* pointing out what line American better not cross else be considered an aggressor. He is negotiating with Trump already. You can be the alpha dog here. Later, Putin will make his desires known – Gas rights? Pricing guarantees? Recognized territory? Who knows. At this point, Trump and Putin are sniffing each other at the food bowl. They’re building a healthy relationship for meaningful negotiation. I would not be surprised if they negotiate a REDUCTION in nuclear weapons just because they “get” each other.

Relax – tweets are good.