THE fabled Donald Trump tooth-and-claw negotiation style didn’t assert itself at the G20 summit — and there are increasing doubts it has made the transition from business to politics.

It seems the President’s tactics, used so successfully in real estate bargaining, are swiftly smothered by the weight of political reality on the global stage.

This is no more evident when the new President is dealing with a former head of a Soviet secret service and the survivor of brutal Chinese purges. Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping have played President Trump like a yoyo.

Yet candidate Trump last year told voters his ability to get a deal out of the toughest customers would see him redraw agreements he didn’t support — including one with China. And he boasted at the time he wasn’t going to come out second-best in any face-to-face confrontation.

A remarkable example of these expectations failing to arrive was the confrontation with Mr Putin over allegations of Russian hacking during the 2016 US election. Mr Trump twice raised the matter during the two hour, 16 minute talks.

Rather than being on the defensive, the Russian leader asked Mr Trump to provide “proof and evidence” of the cyber incursions, according to an Associated Press report and confirmation from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

It was as if Mr Putin was offended by suggestions he might do something on the dark and dirty side of diplomacy.

The issue remains unresolved, despite the concerted accusations from American security bodies in public and in private.

The only outcome was a splintering of assessments of the talks with Russians saying Mr Trump accepted Mr Putin’s denials and the Americans simply saying he heard them.

The first Trump/Putin face-to-face went to the Russian, who bizarrely somehow came out of the talks with a Trump commitment for joint cyber security action. Reminder: US intelligence has told Mr Trump the Russians are enemies of American cyber security.

One difficulty for the Trump negotiating style transition is that the President is not in charge of the circumstances and processes. In his first big diplomatic expedition to Europe in the past week he at times appeared lost within the high-structured events.

At one spectacular point, during a meeting of NATO leaders, he hit the Prime Minister of Montenegro hip-and-shoulder to burst through to the front of the pack. It was a display of frustration as well as a Mont Blanc-sized ego.

At summits where all leaders are equal — in theory — and bureaucrats manage diligently, the Trump negotiation methods are robbed of the control he relies on.

These methods were outlined in a 2009 review by MoneyWatch:

• The Impressive Office as a sign of power, which is almost the entire reason for the existence of Trump Tower;

• The “He’s Too Busy” routine despite the guest arriving on time for an appointment;

• The Underling Gauntlet a guest is made run, with the referral to junior staffers giving a sense of their low status;

• The Unexpected Handshake. A Trump device, business suitors are warned he doesn’t like to shake hands and when he does, the guest feels somehow blessed;

• The Meeting Extension. A tight meeting schedule is set aside and when Mr Trump extends this the guest is impressed by his attention.

There was probably just one of these ploys available to President Trump.

The Putin talks were set for just half an hour and Melania Trump broke in to chide the leaders for going well beyond that limit. It was a move straight from the Trump Tower playbook.

But without the big office and facing a class of customer resistant to CEO snow jobs, Mr Trump was effectively disarmed.