This morning, the president of the United States took to Twitter and declared the North Korean nuclear crisis to be “over” simply because he met with Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un and signed a vague agreement that doesn’t actually mandate permanent denuclearization, meaning he hasn’t actually accomplished anything yet beyond taking the step to extend a hand and to improve relations with the DPRK, which by any measure is objectively a good thing that we reluctantly must give him credit for.
Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
His boasting tweet confirms what many suspected: that this entire performance was merely performative theater, an absurd kabuki that allows both men to go home and proclaim victory to their supporters without actually having to alter the status quo in any meaningful way.
Thanks to the fanatical devotion his followers and the hostility to objective truth that President Trump has been cultivating over the past year and a half, his fans will simply accept his words at face value and decide that the crisis is really over, while the rest of us know that once again the President is simply shining his…toupee and telling us it’s gold.
But considering that at this point last year Trump was threatening “fire and fury” and the North Koreans were pouring missiles into the waters around Guam, we suppose that a fake peace is infinitely preferable to a very real war.
