Iranians Studied Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’ Before Talks, Then Walked Out Over His Threats

Iranian diplomats reportedly studied President Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal and consulted psychologists before the high-level U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland, trying to decode when Trump was signaling real policy and when he was using threats as leverage.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran’s team was examining Trump’s negotiating style as the talks unfolded. The strategy was not only to understand the formal American position, but to anticipate Trump’s public pressure moves: extreme threats, sudden social media posts and unpredictable language meant to unsettle the other side.

That approach was tested at the Bürgenstock resort near Lucerne, where Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who headed Iran’s negotiating team, was seated across from Vice President JD Vance.

Ghalibaf had left his phone outside the room. According to the report, an aide entered with an urgent message: Trump had just threatened to strike Iran if it did not stop funding Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!” Trump wrote.

For Trump, the post fit a familiar pressure style: make a maximal threat, project unpredictability and force the other side to react. According to people familiar with the process, Trump had earlier told an aide after a vulgar warning to Iran that he wanted to look as unstable as possible to push Iran toward the negotiating table.

Iran’s response was different. Instead of treating the threat only as rhetoric, Ghalibaf used it against the talks’ own ground rules. He told Vance the post violated the opening paragraph of a memorandum of understanding reached days earlier, which committed both sides not to threaten or attack each other. He then ended the direct face-to-face session.

“I told Vance, ‘Today your president has issued threats. Understand that we never negotiate under threats or pressure,’” Ghalibaf later told Iranian state television.

“The American side sought another meeting through the mediators, but we refused,” he added.

The incident showed how Trump’s social media posts became part of the negotiations themselves. The talks were not only about Iran’s nuclear file. They were also tied to Hezbollah, Lebanon, the Strait of Hormuz and whether Iran could trust Washington while the U.S. president continued issuing threats online.

The report said Iranian diplomats had been studying Trump’s 1987 book, co-written with Tony Schwartz, and consulting psychologists to predict how he might respond before Iran made proposals. In practice, that meant trying to separate immediate American policy from Trump’s pressure tactics.

“Trump is applying the lessons of ‘The Art of the Deal,’ making extreme threats to test the other side’s resolve,” said Mohamed Amersi, an Iran expert and member of the Global Advisory Council of the Wilson Center.

“But the Iranians are well aware of his tactics. It won’t change the dynamics,” he said.

There had already been signs that Iran was trying to neutralize Trump’s method. When Trump posted on April 7 that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” Iran reportedly chose to treat the threat as a negotiating tactic rather than an immediate signal of war. Iran feared a longer ceasefire window would allow Washington and Israel to regroup, and it pushed instead for a shorter truce.

Ghalibaf later struck a harder public tone toward Washington. “We do not take the Americans’ threats seriously,” he said, according to Iranian media. “They may keep talking; it is we who act.”

Vance, meanwhile, tried to keep the diplomatic channel alive. According to the report, he told the Iranians that Trump’s post was not meant as a new threat during negotiations, but as a warning about what would happen if Iran violated an agreement.

He later defended Trump’s rhetoric publicly, saying the president was responding to Iranian “trash talk” and was trying to “correct the record.” Vance also said the talks had made progress.

“The final deal is the house. We set the foundation. We haven’t built the house, but we’ve laid a successful foundation,” Vance said.

Although the direct meeting broke down, the process did not collapse. Talks continued through Pakistani and Qatari mediators, who had been involved in efforts to lower tensions around Lebanon and Hezbollah.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the mediation had produced movement on that front. “Tireless Pakistani and Qatari mediation has delivered major progress to end the Lebanon war,” he said.

The episode left both sides claiming control of the process. Trump’s threats may have been intended to pressure Iran into concessions, but Iran tried to blunt that pressure by studying his tactics, refusing to appear intimidated and shifting the talks back to mediators when the threats entered the room. For now, the negotiations continue, with Trump’s social media posts treated as part of the battlefield.