The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, Sept 9, edition that satisfying President Donald Trump's ego is an unspoken demand hovering over the third round of North American free-trade agreement negotiations. The Globe's Ian McGugan writes that Mr. Trump easily makes outrageous demands and threats. "I aim very high and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I want," Mr. Trump says in his 1987 memoir, The Art of the Deal. "Sometimes I settle for less than I sought, but in most cases I still end up with what I want." Mr. McGugan notes that Mr. Trump is not quite as infallible as his self-serving stories would suggest. In the years after its publication, his Atlantic City properties ran into problems and declared bankruptcy. His Trump University elicited a storm of lawsuits. Mr. Trump says in his book, "The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it." Mr. Trump clearly needs a win. Mr. McGugan says unless Mr. Trump accomplishes something of note in the next few months, he is going to look more and more like the blusterer-in-chief. The pressure is on Mr. Trump and, as his book instructs, Canadian and Mexican negotiators should use that fact to their full advantage.
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