Trump’s achievement

THE Mail is well aware of President Donald Trump’s awesome shortcomings.

He’s a narcissistic maverick whose remarks about women have been deeply offensive and whose intemperate Twitter outbursts undermine the dignity of his office.

But while it’s very early days, it must be conceded that his meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is an extraordinary diplomatic achievement – especially as just a few months ago the two men were trading highly personal insults and dire threats.

True, there are many huge caveats over Kim’s commitment to ‘denuclearisation’. He has offered no timetable, no mechanism for international verification, or any guarantee that decommissioning will be permanent. But – for now at least – the world feels a slightly safer place.

The liberal establishment loves to denigrate Mr Trump, as they once did Ronald Reagan. Yet for all their contempt, Mr Reagan is now remembered as the president who won the Cold War.

We’re not holding our breath, but with the US economy booming and peace apparently breaking out on the Korean peninsula, could it be that Mr Trump will also confound his bien-pensant critics? LOSING a loved one is hard enough without then having to contact every bank and building society with which they had accounts and coping with endless paperwork. So the news that – following a three-year Money Mail campaign – grieving families will now be able to do this with a single form is hugely welcome. Can we now hope that the utility and insurance companies will follow suit?