Trump has done it the same way for decades. Whatever the issue is, he throws a whole lot of ideas out there. I have heard him repeat over the years this same idea: you have to be flexible on the path to finish the journey, and you have to be willing to walk away if you find that it’s not worth it. So he’ll say “we can do this, we can add that, we can change over there” and depending on the reaction he follows in that direction until all his obstacles are removed.
And that is what he does with people who cooperate. When you make him angry, he gets loud and says things like “hit ‘em back 10 times harder”. In this case, the left and other of Trumps enemies and opponents have become total suckers for their own propaganda. They have been saying for years that Trump is crazy, and dangerous, and dumb. So when Trump said he was willing to use Nukes on North Korea, or that he is willing to put up $200 billion in tariffs on European cars etc - his opponents believe that he is crazy enough to actually do it. So they come seriously to compromise and walk away from what they think is the ledge.
This is why Trump appears erratic and contradictory at times. In his head he knows he will ultimately need to be conciliatory and agreeable with whomever’s on the other side of the table. But before they get to the table he also has to confuse and scare and worry them. This is basically what he did with Putin, too. The media and all those intel-agency people are dumb as rocks. Trump has been much more strict and imposing on Russia than Obama ever was. Obama’s (and Hillary’s) tactics were foolish. They kowtowed to everyone in public, Hillary brings a stupid “reset” button, Obama tells Medvedev “psst tell Vlad I’m only pretending to be mean” etc etc. If you kiss the ass of your opponent in public, what kind of leverage will you have to extract concession in private? I have no idea what really went on with Obama’s Iran deal because it was such a bad deal. But you could argue that we got such a crap deal - Obama was not negotiating with Iran he was negotiating for Iran, so they just kept asking for more and more, and agreeing to less and less. Trump slaps sanctions on Russia, goes to NATO and says “let’s spend more money because Russia is a threat”, he says “hey EU stop giving Putin so much money find new sources for natural gas” and this kind of action gets Putin’s attention. Now he knows Trump is serious. And that is why they got along. Trump walked into Helsinki with a long list of sanctions against Russia, which he could then use to leverage Putin into making a deal in return for Trump backing off.
Almost nobody in the media understands this.
He is a brilliant tactician and negotiator, PLUS nobody owns him, he’s totally uncorruptable, PLUS he really seems to understand the lessons of history regarding liberty and self-governance, PLUS he doesn’t have a speck of vanity - he just doesn’t give a damn whether the wine and cheese set like him or not, PLUS he seems like a decent human being, willing to sacrifice for us, and take all the festering crap he is taking, when he could have lived out his golden years on a private island surrounded by luxury, his gorgeous super model wife and other people who love him and appreciate him.
Man, did we ever get lucky when Trump decided to take a stab at MAGA!