Reuters
Let’s not award any Nobel Peace Prize just yet, but as a longtime—and often harsh—Trump critic, I think he deserves credit for taking a new approach in dealing with one of the most dangerous problems on the planet: North Korea and its deadly arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Since the Eisenhower administration, North Korea has been an enemy. Eleven presidents have worked to contain it, but that’s not the same as actually eliminating the problem. And while there are no guarantees Trump will succeed where his many predecessors have failed, talking, in and of itself, isn’t a bad thing. “Let us never negotiate out of fear,” John F Kennedy said in 1961, “but let us never fear to negotiate.”
For all his bombast, ignorance and behaving like a jerk, Trump has played the buildup to the summit well, downplaying its prospects—“We’ll see what happens”—while focusing on the long-term potential of a more docile North Korean regime. He has long opposed U.S. nation building, but it’s clear that he is prepared to help Kim economically if “Rocket Man” gives up his nuclear weapons (but what about his missiles, chemical and biological weapons?). How this plays out, the time frame, joint steps, verification measures and so forth, are key and here Trump—famously superficial and with a short-attention span—will step back and let others work out the complex details. Overcoming two-thirds of a century’s worth of hatred and mistrust won’t happen overnight—if at all—and there are a thousand ways things could get derailed.
Politically, there’s more upside than downside for Trump here. If Singapore falls apart, opponents who, by default, hate him and everything he does, will point out how the president didn’t prepare (and bragged about not preparing) and how he loves dictators (Kim’s “very honorable,” Trump recently gushed). And Trump’s followers won’t think any less of their guy: after all, Trump lowered expectations to begin with, and besides, Kim Jong-un’s a monster, a butcher, a tyrant who murders his enemies (it has been reported), with flame throwers, anti-aircraft guns, or by unleashing starving dogs upon them. Who could make a deal with him?
Trump is further downplaying things by keeping the summit short. The White House said Monday that it’ll be a one-day affair, and that Trump will leave Tuesday night (Tuesday morning on the U.S. East Coast). So this will clearly be a “getting-to-know-you” kind of thing, with a possible—and mind-blowing as this may seem—follow-up meeting with Kim in the White House. There’s no way that would happen unless there was some sort of big agreement for the two men to actually sign.
Read: What time is the North Korea summit between Trump and Kim?[1]
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