Trump reality check

IT MAY go down in history as an unsolvable riddle whether or not Donald Trump was, as he later argued, tripped by a double negative when he exonerated Russia – which allegedly meddled in his country’s 2016 general election that sent him to the White House – when he was expected to condemn it.

Amid a furious backlash at home, even accusations of “treason”, the US president explained he had meant to say “wouldn’t” when he said “I don’t see any reason why it would” be Russia that interfered in the US election. Trump believes in risk-taking, such as his meetings with foreign leaders less than popular with the American public.

His meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong-un could have potentially defused two of the world’s most damaging stand-offs. For that reason alone, they were worth a try. While it remains unclear how far he can go in thawing the US-Russia relationship, he seems to already be receding from earlier boasts about denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.

Despite insisting discussions with Pyongyang “are going very, very well”, Trump has conceded there is “no time limit”, and “no speed limit” in place. His belated acknowledgment may appear embarrassing considering his earlier remarks that his meeting with Kim was a huge success and denuclearisation would start “without delay”, and “very quickly”.

But it is actually good for him to finally come to terms with the complexity of the matter while trying to resolve it. As time goes by, he will learn that the failures he had seen on the part of his predecessors may have more to do with the complicated nature of the issues than with the incompetence he had suggested.

However, it is good to see Trump becoming realistic – he needs to be if he aspires to finally achieve what his predecessors couldn’t.