The nation’s top climate negotiator and former President Barack Obama’s secretary of state offered rare and high praise for President-elect Donald Trump’s unpredictability on the world stage.
John Kerry, an artful though more traditional international negotiator, said that Trump’s famous style of coming on strong and sometimes threatening could initially be a winning tactic when facing down world bullies.
“He makes unpredictability a virtue, and it actually can be helpful,” Kerry said to snickers at a Thursday night event at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.
“Don’t laugh,” he added, throwing his hands out to quiet the audience.
“It could be helpful in a negotiation for them to worry about you and not know where you’re coming from,” he said in answering a question about negotiating with Iran over its support for terrorism in the Middle East.