The Putin-Trump summit diverted attention from Korean issues, but they raise profound questions about what Trump gives away to get what he claims are triumphs of statecraft.
Remember North Korea? Remember those nukes and missiles it has that could threaten the American heartland? Remember those hostage remains of U.S. soldiers killed more than 75 years ago? Which is to say: Remember all those problems Donald Trump announced were solved after his June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore?
Probably you do remember, but at this point Trump might prefer that you forget, because the negotiations are not going well at all. Even the discussion of when and how to return 200 sets of remains — which Trump held up as a brilliant addition he made at the last minute to his one-page accord with Kim, and which Trump then claimed was a done deal — is not a deal that has been done at all.
The hallucinatory Trump summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last week diverted attention from Korean issues, but they look as intractable as they ever did, raising profound questions about what Trump gives away to get what he claims are triumphs of statecraft. He goes into these encounters unprepared, comes out looking like he’s been played for a sucker, then tries to compensate with bluster and bullying. The Washington Post reports that, privately, Trump is fuming.
One of Trump’s tweets on Friday certainly suggests he’s getting more than a little defensive as his inadequacies become evident. He claimed the “Fake News Media” were just “hypocrites” refusing to recognize his capital-D “Diplomacy.”
