Trying to translate Trump
The rising nuclear aggression of North Korea under Kim Jong Un is a threat to the stability of East Asia and the world. The growing incoherence of the Trump administration in response to that aggression only exacerbates the problem. In May — despite years of positively ballistic threats, missile launches and nuclear tests aimed at provoking the United States — President Trump said that he “would have no problem speaking to” the dictator.
He told Bloomberg News, “If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely; I would be honored to do it.”
Early this month, soon after the U.S. led the UN to impose tough new economic sanctions on the North, Trump threatened North Korea with “fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen” — not-so-subtle code for nuclear war — if North Korea dare even “make any more threats to the United States.”
Days later, Trump followed up by saying those words probably hadn’t been “tough enough.”
Meantime, Kim’s threats continued — including a warning about a “merciless strike” ahead of U.S. and South Korean military drills. Fire and fury and power did not materialize.
Then, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis authored an Op-Ed asserting that “while diplomacy is our preferred means of changing North Korea’s course of action, it is backed by military options.”
Around the same time, then-chief Trump advisor Steve Bannon, soon to be removed from his White House post, said, “There’s no military solution” to North Korea’s threats. “They got us.” Confused yet? Hang onto something. Just days ago, Tillerson again opened the door to talks, saying he looked forward to seeing “if we can bring the regime in Pyongyang to the negotiating table with a view to begin a dialogue on a different future for Korean Peninsula and for North Korea.”
Tuesday, following another North Korean missile launch, Trump proclaimed “all options are on the table” in dealing with North Korea.
Wednesday, taking one option off the table and contradicting what he said earlier this year, Trump tweeted that “The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!”
Within hours of that tweet, standing alongside his South Korean counterpart, Mattis contradicted Trump’s assertion, saying, “We’re never out of diplomatic solutions. We always look for more. We’re never complacent.”
“The United States is open to trying to deal with this question diplomatically,” added a U.S. ambassador to the UN’s Conference on Disarmament.
We do not here pretend that other U.S. Presidents ever hit upon the formula to tame the rogue regime’s dangerous behavior. We simply note, with jaw agape, that the Trump administration is simultaneously saying everything and nothing.