Either Hell has frozen over or God is playing a practical joke on America — but as the world now knows, Donald Trump has accepted an invitation from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un for a Trump-Kim face to face meeting. So, what could possibly go wrong? Or, perhaps the better question is: what could possibly go right??
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Imagine, if you will, Donald Trump, a reality television star turned overnight politician with ZERO diplomatic experience alone in a room negotiating with Kim Jong Un, a portly 30-something dictator who presides over a prison state, liquidates his adversaries and has vowed to obliterate the US beneath a nuclear cloud. The very image is as combustible as gasoline and a match. However, if all goes as planned, the image will morph into an actual Trump-Kim meeting in less than 2 months.
It’s the moment past presidents have only dreamed of — the day the President of the United States and his team of uber-experienced diplomats sit across a table from the communist leader of North Korea to hammer out 70 years of differences. However, with Donald Trump at the helm, this historic dream is already predicted to become a colossal nightmare.
For decades, the Kim dynasty has used diplomatic coercion and offers of talks to cheat their way into becoming a nuclear threat that preserves a tyrannical regime in defiance of the US. For decades, the US has followed diplomatic protocol and held lower-level talks with the isolated nation, while dangling the carrot of a president to president meeting as a bargaining chip for North Korea to first agree to a list of concessions, including nuclear disarmament. Then, along comes happy-go-lucky Donald Trump, whose ego urges him to jump at a Trump-Kim meeting without any concessions, promises, or ample preparation for a summit of such stature.
To put it bluntly, Trump is the last to know he is walking into a massive trap.
“There is no way that President Trump can be ready by May to have a high-stakes negotiation on denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. It’s just impossible,” said Samantha Vinograd, a former official at the Obama administration’s National Security Council. She added that Kim is merely “playing to the President’s ego and the president’s weaknesses by flattering him.”
Additional analysts noted that the Kim dynasty has long looked for a summit with an American president as a symbol of equality with another nuclear power.
“Summits normally come at the end of a long series of negotiations at lower levels in which lots of devils in the details are hammered out,” said Robert Kelly, a professor at Pusan National University in South Korea and a North Korea expert. However, “Trump, always the publicity-seeker, is just diving right in.”
Kelly noted that President Bill Clinton came very close to visiting North Korea, however, that was only after investing 5 years of negotiations into the possibility. Yet the inexperienced Trump seems to be the last to know he can’t skip past certain prerequisites and plunge right in without any preparation.
By securing a meeting with Trump, Kim could achieve something North Korea has sought for decades — the legitimacy of standing side-by-side with an American President on an equal footing. However, for his part in the meeting, Trump could be left with nothing more than a glorified photo-op and broken promises by the North Korean dictator — promises that could have been secured if only Trump had followed proper protocol and demanded proof of denuclearization prior to a Trump-Kim meeting.
“This trap is so obvious even Wile E. Coyote wouldn’t walk into it,” said US Naval War College professor Tom Nichols.
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Concerns over Trump’s approach are being magnified by the impulsive way he burst into the White House briefing room last Thursday to alert journalists to expect a major announcement. The moment made him appear as a giddy schoolboy who just couldn’t help telling everyone he had a big secret.
Additionally, even some Trump supporters are beginning to believe that their guy might be in over his head for a meeting of such magnitude, particularly since his own secretary of state was completely unaware that a Trump-Kim meeting was a real possibility.
“In terms of direct talks with the United States, and you asked negotiations, we’re a long way from negotiations; we just need to be very clear-eyed and realistic about it,” Tillerson said while on a diplomatic visit to Ethiopia.
Now, he has egg on his face and has (once again) been undercut by his boss.
Additional fears were magnified when an excited Trump admonished Jonathan Karl of ABC News that even at this early stage of the process, “hopefully, you will give me credit,” magnifying his constant craving for attention and affirmation.
Trump and Kim have spent the past year launching insults at each other, with Trump mocking Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and vowing to ”totally destroy” North Korea, and Kim calling Trump a “dotard” while threatening to send nuclear bombs to Washington. So, for Trump to give away all leverage and agree to a Trump-Kim meeting just for the bragging rights that he was able to do what his predecessors were all unable to do is an enormous gamble — and Kim Jong Un knows it. Kim is playing the long game and recognizes he is dealing with an inexperienced stooge. He is setting Trump up to fall flat on his face on the international stage and for the meeting to end as a failure, which would be a huge blow to US credibility.
So, if all goes as planned, the inexperienced and ill-prepared Donald Trump and his team of inexperienced diplomats will engage in a meeting that has been 70 years in the making with the leader of North Korea.
Too bad the egotistical Trump has no idea he is being played for a fool!
“To put it bluntly, Trump is the last to know he is walking into a massive trap.”
You’re darn skippy DJ! And every point you’ve highlighted in your post is On.Point.
…which is exactly why Trump’s staff is already trying to subtly back-peddle that poor fool out of this mess.
Frankly, I don’t see the meeting happening….certainly no time soon if ever.