Cool it, Mr. President
The lesson President Trump has drawn from the reaction to his hotheaded statement that North Korea “will be met with fire and the fury like the world has never seen” if it makes “any more threats to the United States” is that his comment probably “wasn’t tough enough.”
This is a disturbing development. Given the delicacy of the emerging security crisis, given the very real possibility of blundering into a catastrophic war, the President must learn to calm and focus his language, not deepen his swagger.
It was in the wake of bellicose language from Kim Jong Un — the likes of which leaders in Pyongyang have been hurling for decades — that on Tuesday Trump issued his initial ultimatum: that as commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, he would answer mere North Korean rhetorical provocations with lethal military might.
“Fire and fury like the world has never seen” means nuclear weapons.
Let’s be far clearer than Trump was about this. There is nothing wrong and everything right with an American President, in blunt but careful language, stating that the first use of nuclear weapons by North Korea will invite a devastating response.
Said former President Bill Clinton in 1993 about that eventuality: “It would mean the end of their country as they know it.”
That’s how deterrence works. Speak softly, carry nearly 7,000 uranium-235 sticks.
Emotional language designed to excite has no place. Nor does imprecision.
As refreshingly politically incorrect as fiery language may sound to the Trumpian ear, it risks miscalculation by the other side, especially when the other side is clinically paranoid about U.S. aggression. And when such threats prove idle, they weaken American credibility going forward.
More sober officials in Trump’s orbit understand as much.
“Americans should sleep well,” said Secretary of State Tillerson on Tuesday, adding that “nothing that I have seen and nothing that I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours.”
After being corrected, Trump had a chance to learn a lesson. He didn’t. He never does.