'Fatally damage your interests': Trump’s 3-part 'negotiating conditions' for getting what he wants

VICE News reporter Todd Zwillich said President Donald Trump appears to be applying a familiar extortion game plan for enriching himself, whether he uses it on American businesses or foreign nations.

“Strikingly similar negotiating conditions for both Paramount and Vietnam,” Zwillich posted on X:

• Your critical business interests rest on a Trump Admin decision.
• Trump establishes a conduit by which you can pay him directly
• Trump has the means to fatally damage your interests should you choose not to.

Zwillich, who teaches journalism with a focus on ethics and democracy at PennState’s Bellisario College of Communications, made his post after the president announced on TruthSocial that he had “just made a Trade Deal with Vietnam. Details to follow!”

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Trump announced his victory one week ahead of a July 9 deadline for U.S. tariffs on Vietnam imports to snap back from their current 10 percent levels to a 46 percent tariff Trump had levied earlier this year as part of his "Liberation Day" announcement. Trump also threatened a higher 40 percent "on any transshipping," when goods shipped from Vietnam originate from another country, like China.

Zwillich was unclear on the direct benefit Trump or his family was receiving from Vietnam officials in exchange for their compliance. However, Vietnam ranks sixth among the U.S.’s top trading partners by import value, and was in a position to be economically damaged by Trump’s tariffs.

Citizens for Ethics in Washington (CREW) reports Trump properties are currently being developed and sold in Vietnam, with Trump International opening a hotel, golf and residential establishment in Vietnam’s city of Hung Yen, slated for opening in 2027.

These developments, says CREW, require subcontractors, buyers and permits from local governments, and they create “massive conflicts of interest for Trump, as he weighs American foreign policy against his own financial incentives.”

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Meanwhile, The New Republic reports Paramount has also personally enriched the president by caving “to Trump’s obvious extortion” over a ‘60 Minutes’ interview with Kamala Harris. The company’s agreement to pay Trump $16 million, including covering the president’s legal fees, clears the way for a company mega-merger with Skydance, which requires the Trump administration’s approval to proceed.

The settlement, reports TNR, starkly contrasts a recent Paramount court filing calling the “meritless lawsuit” an attempt “to evade bedrock First Amendment principles establishing that public officials like themselves cannot hold news organizations like CBS liable for the exercise of editorial judgment.”