If you’re not reading Michael Tomasky from The Daily Beast, you should be (not instead of ‘Zoom, but along with). Tomasky’s premise, from which I’ll add my own observations include the botched “summit” between Kim Jung Un. He notes that from the very moment it was announced – an announcement that surprised his own staff, never a good sign – one could tell that Trump had absolutely no idea what he was doing.
Trump announced the possible summit on a day when he was already attempting to defend his steel tariffs from attacks by Republican law makers. Then, mid-afternoon of the same day, news broke that Michael Cohen had gotten a temporary restraining order preventing Stormy Daniels from speaking about her relationship with Trump – a virtual admission that Trump had something to hide, that Trump had to have been involved, and something too juicy for news not to cover (sex? money? Rock n’ Roll? Nah, sex, money and Trump, crazier than Ozzy).
One can see the mouse running the wheel in Trump’s mind. “I must announce something good …” because nothing is more important than driving the news cycle, is that not the first concern of every president? Right, no, it’s not of any until this one. Thus, Daily Beast by way of CNN:
Peeking around a half-opened pocket door, Trump caught the eye of a small handful of reporters and drew them closer to him. First, he asked to speak off the record, but with an ounce of prodding agreed to go on the record, as long as his remarks remained off camera.
“South Korea’s going to be making a major statement at about 7 o’clock,” Trump said ceremoniously. Vice President Mike Pence stood silently behind him.
“About what?” a puzzled reporter asked.
“The big subject,” Trump replied, his scowl turning into a grin.
Trump accepts, on the spur of the moment and without consultation with people who, you know – know something, South Korean president Chung’s suggestion that it may be time for everyone to meet.
Ta da!
He’s done it!
He is doing something no American president has ever done, he is going to personally meet with the leader from North Korea. I guess Tomasky is in a more charitable than me, because I am going to mention that the entire reason that Trump was the first to “offer” to meet the North Korean president is that every other American president knows that a summit with the President of the United States is a privilege. It bestows credibility on those who meet with him. Experts from both parties had already agreed that the last thing on Earth a president wants to do is put a sniveling little shit like Kim Jung Un or his crazy-ass predecessors on the same footing as the U.S. president. North Koreans are wholly isolated from the world, the poor people of North Korea, truly innocent victims, actually believe that North Korea is a great power that makes the U.S. quake in fear.
Tomasky doubts that the South Koreans made an offer of any kind, it was just another convenient “fact” in Trump’s head, because the world exists however Trump just decided it exists. Tomasky writes:
To that extent, it worked. Wow, talking heads gushed. He’s done what no president before him could do! Improbable as it seems, maybe if anyone can cut this deal, Trump can! Google “Trump Korea Nobel Prize” and your machine will return you 7.55 million depressingly comedic results. “Everyone thinks so,” Trump said of the possibility of being bestowed with such an honor. “But I would never say it.”
There were voices, yes, that warned that maybe doing something like this on the spur of the moment wasn’t the world’s best idea. That something like this takes planning. That maybe there’s a reason a bilateral summit with North Korea just hasn’t magically happened in these last 80 years, and maybe even diplomats—dour, bureaucratic men and women that they are, always seeing the complicated side of things—have a point about treading carefully into these waters.
And everyone who say “tread carefully” clearly never appreciate the greatness of the man that is MAGAing his way to either a dictatorship or jail, it is still not clear which.
Now imagine if Hillary had gone through the same process. The Right would be reeling about the incompetent president who couldn’t provide “leadership” when it all fell apart. The fact is, they would accusing Hillary as being some communist sympathizer, attempting to “help out” North Korea, with a feminine touch.
We need not worry that Trump would ever attempt to help out North Korea. We only need to worry about what he might do next to get the news cycle positive. Besides, we know that the only country that Trump will do anything possible to help out, is to make Russia great again.
