Trump’s low-bid offer for your vote

Like an over-empowered 5-year-old, the man-child who would be president turns everything into a negotiation. Few take seriously his proposal to build a wall at the Mexican border, even among his supporters, who simply enjoy the spectacle of him thumbing his nose at political convention and getting away with it.

{mosads}But for presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump to make this shtick work, he has to say something in response to the eye-rolling of adults in the room, so he doubles down with a wink and a nod. Are his policy positions preposterous? Don’t worry. They’re just the opening, lowball offer in his negotiations with (fill in the blank).

Credulous observers think the blank is to be filled with “Mexico,” “China,” “the Saudis” or “the GOP establishment.” They have the wrong negotiation in mind. Obviously, Trump is not in negotiations with Mexico, China or Saudi Arabia, and what he’s doing with the GOP is more dictating terms of surrender than negotiating.

Trump claims these opening bids are designed to retain flexibility in subsequent rounds of offers and counteroffers. True. His initial offers have more to do with framing the negotiation than they do with the substance of the offer itself.

This is now becoming clear as Trump draws limits around his promise to ban Muslims, backtracks from punishing women who have abortions, and reverses course on torturing terrorists (twice!), ObamaCare’s insurance mandate, nuclear proliferation, “neutrality” toward Israel, raising the minimum wage, and paying the nation’s debts. Recently, he even walked back a promise one might have thought was sacrosanct, saying the Great Wall of Mexico might only need to cover half the border. He didn’t say which half.

The real estate mogul has another negotiation in mind.

Who is the counterparty for this baffling array of flexibility-enhancing offers? Well, you. He’s making a low-bid offer for your vote. Responding to rumors he had told The New York Times editorial board not to take his policy statements too seriously, Trump told Fox News, “Everything is negotiable. Things are negotiable, I’ll be honest with you.”

If you’re willing to buy a pig in a poke from this man, America, I have a bridge to sell you.

This piece was updated on June 30, 2016 at 10:42 a.m.

Diehl is a former chief of staff of the U.S. Treasury Department, director of the U.S. Mint and staff director of the Senate Finance Committee.