"I like making deals, preferably big deals, that is how I get my kicks." That is the first paragraph of Mr Trump’s book "The Art of the Deal". But it seems President Trump breaks more deals than he makes. He has tried to undermine a climate deal, a trade deal and now a nuclear deal.  He has but one big deal on his mind: America First.

But America First is not about power but powerlessness. Warren Harding was the last American president who preached against international commitment, after the administration of globalist Woodrow Wilson. The philosophy is the result of a misreading that America is losing power. You can commit less, but that does not mean you don’t engage any longer.

The Iran nuclear deal is a product of months of negotiations and years of stalemate. It may not be a perfect plan for the US or the rest of the parties. But it was the best they had. And President Trump simply believes he can do better. But how? He has no diplomatic team at the table and no clear strategy to unite the stakeholders. What the American president has is blind faith in himself and a super-sized ego.

But sometimes that ego is conflicted even within itself. Trump has been enjoying placing maximum pressure on others for concessions. When he sent his negotiators to Beijing for trade talks, he raised two conditions: narrow the trade imbalance by 200 billion US dollars and stop the Made in China 2025 strategy.  

Well, let's look at them. He wants China to buy more, a lot more from America. In a way, China has been buying more. According to BEA, from 2000 till 2017, America enjoyed a surplus of trade in services, from 1.9 billion dollars to 39 billion dollars. America is good at services, and China buys American services. That is what trade is all about.

China also wants to buy technologies from America. But this time, America says no. That is partly why China has turned inward with its 2025 strategy. China is a big manufacturing power and wants to become a better one. Nothing could and should stop that.

Making deals takes compromise, and compromise takes good intentions. If you expect to win a round of boxing by punching opponents who are blindfolded or have their hands tied, you are simply crazy.

All this wrangling boils down to one thing: trust in each other and belief in cooperation. Be it Iran, the DPRK, China or Europe, the United States seems to think the others are never good enough. And Trump thinks playing tough will naturally bend history as others will turn the other cheek. My way or the highway works only when you are the mafia leader surrounded by sycophants. America is not and cannot be a mafia leader, nor is China or for that matter, any country working with America, a gang member. America First is morally dubious and practically poisonous.

But Mr Trump is pandering to his base, a fraction of American society who believe in him and his world view. He is not ruling America, he is simply ruling his America. But the big deal is way bigger. In our time, the real deal is global cooperation. In an interconnected world, no country can claim first on everything or forever. Live and let live, thrive and let thrive.

President Trump says America First is good for his country, it will bring about a safe homeland and a bullish economy. Well, it depends what kind of leader he is trying to be. There is the wildebeest kind. The Great Wildebeest Migration in Masai Mara is one of the world’s most thrilling spectacles of leadership. The leader battles rapids and predators to show the way forward with strength and courage. And the migration takes the group to a richer land. And then there is the bull in a china shop kind. Only in today’s world, the bull is bigger, and the shop is more vulnerable.

Mr Trump likes to rule in chaos. But let's hope he is the wildebeest crossing the rapids in Masai Mara, not the bull running amok in a delicate china shop.