Trump’s tweets are shots heard round the world

Short missives could go a long way toward tweaking friends, foes alike

WASHINGTON – President Trump’s critics say his Twitter diplomacy is bad enough, but nuclear diplomacy by tweet could have explosive consequences.

A social media missive Tuesday night all but threatening to blow up North Korea — the highlight of a striking 16-tweet day in which the president also promised to hold a ceremony to slam “the most dishonest and corrupt media,” suggested an aide to a political rival go to jail and bashed nuclear-armed Pakistan — has ignited new questions about Trump’s judgment.

Trump’s latest incendiary comments, analysts fear, could fray U.S. relations across the globe or even lead to nuclear warfare.

The tweets “will convince many world leaders that not only is he unstable and unreliable but potentially truly dangerous,” nuclear policy expert Joe Cirincione said.

In an attempt to one-up North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who claimed

to have a “nuclear button” on his desk, Trump tweeted Tuesday night: “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

Kori Schake, a National Security Council official in the George W. Bush administration, said “infantilism is a dangerous foreign policy” — especially when it involves nations with nukes.

“Not only does the president’s recklessness make war more likely,” Schake said, “it will also deprive us of allied support should war come.” Schake and other analysts said allies also may be less inclined to share intelligence about threats from Kim or other bad actors if they think it could lead to an ill-considered conflict.

Though Trump and aides have said they want to resolve the North Korea standoff peacefully, the reference to button size is sure to raise anxiety levels from the Pentagon to foreign capitals.

Important note: The idea of a “nuclear button” is a colorful metaphor; the president actually would authorize nuclear strikes through a series of launch codes.

Trump and aides have said they do not want to use force, but they have not ruled it out. In August, as North Korea threatened to attack Guam with intercontinental ballistic missiles, Defense Secretary James Mattis said the human toll of a nuclear confrontation “would be catastrophic.”

Trump’s tweets, said David Rothkopf, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, “make our allies uneasy because they reveal the president to be erratic and extreme. They make our enemies more likely to respond dangerously for the same reason.”

The big fear: that Trump’s rhetoric could be misunderstood by those adversaries, leading one way or another to a nuclear exchange. There could be other ripple effects, including a weakening of alliances, that would make it harder for the United States to achieve global goals, whether it’s disarming North Korea or improving trade.

On Tuesday, the president appeared to call for prosecutions of former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and ex-FBI director James Comey. He threatened to yank U.S. aid to Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority. And of course, he attacked the media.

He used social media more sedately Wednesday morning: a single tweet backing protesters of the Islamic fundamentalist government in Iran.