Just hours before Donald Trump is set to meet with Kim Jong Un and hours after he crashed and burned at the G7 summit in Canada, it’s clear that North Korea has already won.
Not only couldn’t the North Koreans have asked for a greater gift than a U.S. president elevating their brutal regime on the world stage, but Trump has given them this gift while simultaneously degrading America’s image abroad.
North Korea’s rising legitimacy, thanks to Trump, was demonstrated in Kim Jong Un’s nighttime stroll in Singapore, where cameras followed Kim and his entourage around town like he was Taylor Swift. The North Korean leader even stopped to pose for a selfie with the city-state’s foreign minister.
Sure, selfies should never be overstated, but it’s just the latest example of how the U.S. president’s approach toward North Korea has essentially transformed Kim Jong Un from brutal, murderous dictator to superstar on the world stage.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Trump has done this while at the same time shredding whatever credibility the United States has left under his watch. Nowhere was that more clear than the president’s stunning dumpster fire at the G7 summit, when he showed up late, trashed American allies and left early.
And if you thought Trump was done embarrassing the country ahead of the Singapore summit, you’d be wrong.
Just a short time ago — hours before he’s set to meet Kim Jong Un — he took to Twitter to lash out at “pundits” and slam the “haters & losers” who dare to criticize him.
The fact that I am having a meeting is a major loss for the U.S., say the haters & losers. We have our hostages, testing, research and all missle launches have stoped, and these pundits, who have called me wrong from the beginning, have nothing else they can say! We will be fine!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2018
Trump is playing right into North Korea’s hands
Ultimately, this perfect Trump storm of giving legitimacy to Kim Jong Un while simultaneously tearing American credibility to pieces — and then whining on Twitter hours before a high-stakes summit — likely has the North Koreans laughing all the way to Singapore.
No matter what happens in the highly anticipated meeting between Trump and Kim, North Korea has already won. This president has given them something that decades of American leaders have refused to give the regime: legitimacy.
Only a buffoon like Donald Trump could make a tyrant like Kim Jong Un look like a credible player on the world stage.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
