Today, President Trump demonstrated once again why entrusting the safety and prosperity of the entire world to a washed-up game show host was one of the biggest mistakes this country has ever made.
CNN reports that the Trump administration has abruptly decided to cancel the planned historic summit with North Korea, which was going to be held in Singapore on June 12th.
For weeks, the White House had been touting the pending meeting as a legacy-defining moment for the president, with some of his more rabid fans even suggesting it could net him a Nobel Peace Prize.
Others warned that North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un had the upper hand and simply wanted the international validation that would come with attending a face-to-face summit with the Americans. Most were at least cautiously optimistic.
Those hopes are dashed now. Trump tweeted out an official statement to Kim in which he quoted the “tremendous anger” and “open hostility” demonstrated in a recent statement from the North Korean regime. Yesterday, the regime released a statement calling Vice President Pence a “political dummy,” words which seem to be the cause for today’s stunning White House announcement.
Of course, since it’s Trump, he had to slip a brag into his letter about how “massive and powerful” the American nuclear arsenal is. After all, this is the president who made the Freiduain boast about how much bigger his nuclear button is than Kim’s.
The letter is bizarre in that it starts out by canceling what would have been a landmark meeting that could have made the world a much safer place, transitions into chastising and threatening Kim, and then pivots to praise him for releasing hostages which Trump calls a “beautiful gesture.”
The president did leave the door open for a meeting at some point in the distant future, but the bad faith act of sudden, unexpected cancellation makes that a more difficult prospect now.
Sadly, I was forced to cancel the Summit Meeting in Singapore with Kim Jong Un. pic.twitter.com/rLwXxBxFKx
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2018
The South Koreans, the ones most affected by this decision, weren’t given a warning.
#SouthKorea appears to have been blind-sided: “We are trying to figure out what President Trump’s intention is and the exact meaning of it" says presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) May 24, 2018
The U.S. stock market also dipped after the bombshell news hit, showing how wide the ripples from one bad presidential decision can travel.
U.S. stocks dropped sharply on the North Korea news. The U.S. dollar also weakened broadly, particularly against the Japanese yen.
— Patricia Zengerle (@ReutersZengerle) May 24, 2018
Overall, it’s a bad day for those hoping for a new, lasting peace and detente on the Korean peninsula and for the world in general. Trump was presented with an unprecedented opportunity and foolishly squandered it.
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