The trick is that he'll bring his competitors and even partners in a position where they are threatened with suffering at a level of X. Then he'll offer you a deal that makes you suffer Y with Y < X but also Y > 0.
Yet playing a mixed strategy means that—-to maintain unpredictability—-these deals to avoid venal retribution are not always offered. I predict less than 30% of the time; almost all his Pareto-optimal deals are very obscure. The biggest example is USMCA, which he wrote and negotiated. Yet, today he says it was signed by a fool. “The dumbest explanation is usually the correct one.”
