Trump facing challenges ahead of NKorea summit
WASHINGTON — Weeks before his planned North Korea summit, President Donald Trump is staring down a dealmaker's worst nightmare: overpromising and under-delivering.
As the Singapore meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un draws near, the president and his allies are growing increasingly anxious about how he can score a win on the world stage. While Trump has not suggested he wants to back out, he has struggled to define his objectives for the historic sit-down, and last week he drew fresh criticism from his foreign foil.
"I think that Trump imagined he would go into this meeting and be able to have a historic breakthrough with a deal, but it's clear he's starting to realize it won't be as easy as he imagined," said Jean Lee, director of the North Korea program at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a former Associated Press bureau chief in Pyongyang.
Trump, who has pitched himself as the ultimate negotiator, has focused on ambitious deals as president but has struggled with the fine print. He just hit the pause button on his threatened trade war with China, announcing an agreement to reduce America's trade deficit with China — but few details.
He recently withdrew the US from the international Iran-nuclear deal — without outlining a path forward with his allies. And his Middle East peace plan, which he deputized his son-in-law to lead, is months overdue and facing a more skeptical audience than ever.
Going into the North Korea meeting, senior administration officials say, the president has been almost singularly focused on the pageantry of the summit — including the suspenseful roll-out of details. He has not been deeply engaged in briefing materials on North Korea's nuclear program, said three people with knowledge of the White House efforts, but were not authorized to speak publicly.
Trump will huddle Tuesday at the White House with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to prepare for the June 12 summit. It was Moon's government that delivered the initial invitation from Kim for a meeting, and South Korea has been pushing the US toward a peaceful resolution to the nuclear crisis.