New footage from North Korean state television has made its way to the rest of the world – and there are some very disturbing images from the recent summit with President Trump.
It appears that President Trump, for whatever reason, thought it would be appropriate to salute a North Korean general after a botched attempt at a handshake.
North Korean TV has aired its first footage of the #TrumpKimSummit. Look out for the handshake/salute confusion 55 seconds in. pic.twitter.com/JS5yEUprgz
— BBC Monitoring (@BBCMonitoring) June 14, 2018
“U.S. presidents normally salute U.S. service members, but do not salute the members of other nations” reports the Hill.
Since Trump has never actually been in the military, having dodged the draft on multiple occasions, he wouldn’t know the proper protocol for salutes, but his team definitely should have coached him on the way that diplomacy is done.
What’s most frustrating about this entire affair is how the right-wing media is going to bend themselves over backwards in their efforts to whitewash and excuse this behavior after excoriating President Obama when he bowed to the Saudi Arabian king on a state visit – which Trump also did, by the way.
The gaffe makes it clear that not only does the President of the United States have no respect for the sanctity of the salute, he also has no intention of learning the proper behaviors one must perform as the world’s most powerful man – and that is very bad news for all of us.
