Veteran journalist breaks down effectiveness of Trump’s dealmaking strategy

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s deputy managing editor and politics director Alex Sanz explained Thursday how President-elect Donald Trump’s dealmaking strategy has proven effective.

Trump criticized the Panama Canal’s operations and suggested the United States should take control of Canada and Greenland in a Christmas Day Truth Social post. Sanz, on “NewsNation Live,” asserted that Trump’s blunt rhetoric grabs the “attention” of “world leaders,” who are uncertain of the actions he will take as president.

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“I think when you look at the big picture of what’s happening with a lot of these posts around Panama, around Canada, around Greenland, we’re looking at pressure coming at different directions, whether it’s tariffs, whether it’s shipping, whether it’s the president-elect’s view on what the world order should be,” Sanz said. “In the past, we’ve seen these as negotiating tactics, as ‘let’s try to bring everyone to the table, have the conversation,’ but also the pressure campaign as we’ve seen even here with the congressional nominations for his cabinet and the reaction from Congress.”

“It is beginning to have a conversation and this conversation is now happening essentially every day in almost every corner of the world as many people, world leaders and people here in this country wonder what will happen on day one,” he continued. “Potentially what we’re seeing now is that foundation being laid for a very interesting first couple of days, first hundred days and beyond of what America could look like, what policies could look like going into this second Trump administration.”

NewsNation correspondent Keleigh Beeson asked Sanz if he believes that Trump’s strategy is “effective” for starting negotiations.

“In some cases it is. And we have seen already, just over the past month or so, we have seen [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau of Canada fly down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Trump. He heard the message about the tariffs,” Sanz said. “He heard the barbs that were being traded among those in South Florida of ‘Governor Justin Trudeau.’ He heard the message and potentially knows that there could be a major economic impact on Canada if President-elect Trump really goes ahead and doubles down and sees through potentially a very high tariff.”

“So world leaders in North America and really around the world are paying attention and again because President-elect Trump in the past has sometimes said one thing, done something else, sometimes the same thing, there is always an element of how far will he go? What will he do, what will he not do? But time and again, world leaders know to take him seriously because this is not a conventional administration,” he added. “And this time, without having the prospect of reelection in four years, and given what he said about potentially pushing boundaries across every aspect of governance, there are many wild cards going into January and this is one of the big ones.”

The Canadian government is bolstering its border security apparatus after Trump threatened in November to impose a 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico unless they do more to restrict the flow of illegal immigration and drugs entering the United States.

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