Running North Korea freakout thread

John Bolton on NK: "Regime change"

Donald J. Trump on NK: "I will guarantee Kim's safety against all enemies, foreign and domestic"

Rest of world to U.S.: "Get your sh*t together"

 

He also called China's Xi a "world class poker player."

Too late to add Doyle Brunson to the team?

 

He really does think he's the Godfather now. Calling a meeting of the Families ...

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Big news, obviously. A few thoughts:

– It's hard to know how much of this, if any, is part of Trump's reality-show approach to governing. This might end up being the pre-Act Break cliffhanger to keep people tuning in. ("Coming up after the break, the most dramatic rose ceremony yet, live from Singapore!")

– My biggest concern is that Trump's return to the "my button is bigger than your button" rhetoric ("our nuclear capabilities... are so massive and powerful") will send us to a worse place than we were before all of this summit talk, especially with John Bolton on hand. If you feel like – or you fear it looks like – your outstretched hand was slapped away, then a logical response is to go back stronger in the other direction. Trump's already tried the tough talk. The "bloody nose" strike may well be next.

– Reports are that NK calling Pence a "political dummy" set Trump off. That actually surprises me a bit, in that Trump has rarely seemed to care about a insult to anyone besides himself or his family. I would guess NK might be a bit surprised too, since last week they ripped Bolton by name and Trump basically took NK's side and walked back what Bolton said. They may have figured they'd try the same with Pence.

– Sorry, but I chuckled at the phrase "political dummy."

– Pence had pretty much explicitly said on Fox News that if Kim didn't make a deal, that he'd end up like Gadhafi – deposed and dead. One should have expected pushback on that. Why would (or should) NK show up at a summit if that's the opening American position? ("You have two options: 1) Take our deal; 2) Die")

– Trump and Pompeo (especially) seem to want to keep the door open, though, so this isn't necessarily over. But look at it from Kim's perspective; how does one even know where Trump and his admin stands? They've said several different things just in the last week. Trump says it's not like Libya, but he was confusing Libya 2011 (Gadhafi overthrown) with Libya 2003 (Gadhafi gives up his nascent nuke program). He says he'll guarantee Kim's safety, but also seemed to say in the same conversation that if there isn't a deal, he'll take him out. Then Pence says the latter explicitly, which may or not be what Trump thinks/wants (if he even knows), and then when NK rips Pence, Trump takes his ball and goes home. Maybe it's chess, sure. But does that seem the most likely scenario?

– I feel bad for Moon and the South Koreans for being caught between Kim and Trump.

 

We are so fucked.

 

Trump just laid down the law to NK.

 

Daffy just laid down the law to Bugs

 

Love it.

 

Why