Absence of plan shocker
The Washington Post states the obvious: Trump has never had a plan for dealing with North Korea. Well no kidding, Trump has never had a plan for anything, because he’s had only stupid blurts.
We forget sometimes that President Trump’s political rhetoric was forged not over years of policymaking or in discussions with experts on foreign policy and domestic issues…
Who’s “we”? I don’t forget that. I never forget that for a second. I never forget that Trump is a random brainless blowhard such as you might sit next to on a plane on a bad day, and that he has never had any kind of exposure to policymaking or discussions with experts on foreign policy and domestic issues of any kind whatsoever. I never forget that he can barely read, and does it as little as possible, and that he knows nothing except marketing. Literally nothing. He has a head stuffed full of blurts, and blurts don’t add up to knowledge, no matter how many of them you collect.
We forget sometimes that President Trump’s political rhetoric was forged not over years of policymaking or in discussions with experts on foreign policy and domestic issues, but in weekly phone interviews with “Fox and Friends.” Before he declared his candidacy, the real estate developer and TV personality would appear on the program every Monday morning, weighing in on the issues of the day as the hosts offering their now-familiar lack of criticism of his musings.
I didn’t forget that last part, because I didn’t know it. What on earth did they do that for? Why did anybody anywhere ask Trump for his opinion on the issues of the day? You’d be better off asking the nearest dog.
Host Steve Doocy broached that subject by noting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might soon test a nuclear weapon “or do something dopey like that” — but that China might actually be starting to put pressure on the rogue nation.
“Well, I think China has total control over the situation,” Trump responded. North Korea “wouldn’t exist for a month without China. And I think China, frankly, as you know — and I’ve been saying it for a long time, and people are starting to see that I’m right — China is not our friend.”
And blah blah blah, and somehow we got stuck with Mr Windbag as president.
How did “Fox and Friends” reply to Trump’s argument? Well, the conversation quickly transitioned to Trump having been inaugurated into the pro wrestling Hall of Fame.
To be fair, Trump wasn’t a politician then, so there was much less of a reason to demand a hard answer. Of course, there was also little reason to ask his opinion. But this is the crucible in which Trump’s policy on North Korea was formed — and over the course of the presidential campaign, it didn’t evolve much.
Right, and this is something I don’t forget, and neither do the people I know. We’d be happier and more tranquil, though no less doomed, if we could forget it, but we can’t.
During the general-election debates, Trump stuck to the same theme. “China should solve that problem for us,” he said in September 2016. “China should go into North Korea. China is totally powerful as it relates to North Korea.”
When Trump met with Obama during the presidential transition, Obama reportedly warned Trump that North Korea would be the most urgent problem he would face. Trump, during that period, continued to argue that Chinamust address the North Korea threat and that, under his watch, no North Korean weapon could strike the United States.
North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017
Once he became president, though, Trump’s tone shifted.
In April of this year, with the 100-day mark of his presidency looming, Trump told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo that getting China to fix the problem was not that simple. Describing a conversation with President Xi Jinping of China, Trump said that North Korea was the first thing he brought up. However, Xi “then explain[ed] thousands of years of history with Korea. Not that easy.”
“In other words,” Trump said, “not as simple as people would think.”
No, in other words, not as simple as Trump alone among humans said it was for years. Trump is the only person on the planet who thought it would be simply a matter of ordering the Chinese to deal with it and being Big and Tough enough that they would believe it. Nobody else thought that. Nobody else is that ignorant and simpleminded but confident.
Since then he’s been contradicting himself on the subject every few days – China must deal, China can’t deal, China must deal, Oops it turns out to be difficult, who knew. Now that’s some effective plan right there.
China can fix this and needs to. Maybe China can fix this. If China doesn’t fix this, we will. China isn’t fixing this, but can.
The reason for this back-and-forth is obvious: Trump promised that he could put pressure on the Chinese to cut off North Korea, forcing that nation to end its nuclear ambitions. But once Trump took office, that policy proved to be much harder than he’d presented. So, lacking an obvious solution (since none exists), he continues to try to blame China’s policy while explaining why they haven’t been moved to action.
Thus demonstrating to the entire world what an incompetent reckless bozo he is.
The president’s current conundrum is twofold. First, there’s no easy solution. Second, Trump promised that there was one.
Had his policy been crafted by a team other than Fox’s early-morning talk show hosts, that second problem might not exist.
What could possibly go wrong?
You’re too hard on the guy. He still has his beautiful plans for defeating ISIS, creating peace in the Middle East, and revamping health care.
And CREATING JOBS.
In the meantime, Kim Jong Un is playing Trump like a fine fiddle.
If Clinton was president the little prick would have stuck to saber rattling… he’s only so bold because he thinks the president is a joke (which he is).
Un may be unaware of the political situation over here though since nuking one of the Left Coast’s cities is just gonna please the shit out of the Republican base.
Hmmmmm I don’t think that’s true. He’s been working on the nukes steadily.
It’s not as if Clinton would have had some glorious option that Trump hasn’t thought of. There isn’t one.
(Un is Kim Jong-un’s “middle name.” Referring to him as Un is like referring to Jean-Paul Sartre as “Paul.”)
/pedant
That’s fair; I’m not all that familiar with Korean name structure.
North Korea must love Trump. They can play us like rabid dogs.
“Trump is the only person on the planet who thought it would be simply a matter of ordering the Chinese to deal with it and being Big and Tough enough that they would believe it. Nobody else thought that. Nobody else is that ignorant and simpleminded but confident.”
Unfortunately, I’m not so sure about that. I was born and raised in rural Arkansas, which is a heavily Trump-supportive state, and I still have ties there. The ignorant, self-assured blowhardiness is a familiar trait from the area, though to varying degrees. I think that’s why a lot people voted for him – they think the same way he does, in simpleminded blurts, and they just don’t grok the concept that there should be more to it than that because they themselves have never thought in more detail than that. Anyone who suggests there should be more to it is an ‘elite using big words to look down on them’, and to be mistrusted.
I think people in those parts of the country have a lot of personal insecurity about their intellect and national significance, and a whole lot of Trump’s appeal was that he soothed that insecurity rather than ‘thinking he’s better than us’.
Well I was of course indulging in my usual hyperbole – I do in fact know at least one guy who has a very Trumpesque way of pronouncing on things he knows nothing about. (He still passes around fakey emails among his whole address list, too, which just goes to show.) But I probably wouldn’t have guessed it’s not just a moneybags habit. God it sounds annoying.
I suppose it’s similar to Dunning-Kruger. You have to know a little bit to understand how very little you know, and how much there is to know and understand about any complex subject. I’m always catching myself trying to make guesses about stuff and figuratively slapping myself upside the head.
“In the meantime, Kim Jong Un is playing Trump like a fine fiddle.”
Sorry, Trump is a long way from being a fine anything. At best he is a whoopie cushion or kazoo.
More name pedantry:
Korean names are like Chinese names consisting in a one syllable family name and a two syllable given name, or you could call it two one syllable given names as there’s no way of telling the difference in written Korean or Chinese.[1] Informally people are known by their given name but close friends or family often use the second syllable of the give name. So Kim Jong Un’s close friends, assuming he has any, might call him Un. Name confusion goes both ways. My son Benjamin teaches English at an elementary school in Hong Kong. He appears on the staff list as Ben Hurley and so eveyone calls him Mr. Ben.
Incidentally, one of my Korean friends is a Kim. I don’t think she’s related to Kim Jong Un as it’s a fairly common name.
Footnotes:
[1] Chinese children learning a Western language often find the concept “word” difficult and will put gaps in weird places or will join together words that seem as if they ought to go together as in “tencars” or “hedoes”.