David Frum: Trump Can't Afford to Admit His Failures With North Korea

[babylonsister]

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/trump-north-korea-summit/560621/

Trump Can't Afford to Admit His Failures With North Korea

The administration has no choice now but to carry on the pretense that the negotiations are proceeding favorably.
David Frum 9:34 AM ET Global


Think of the past few months of President Trump’s Korea policy as a drama, unfolding in multiple acts.

Act I: Trump impulsively agrees to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Perhaps unaware that the North Koreans have sought such a summit meeting for decades, Trump boasts that he has extracted a major concession.

Act II: Trump gradually comes to appreciate that he has been duped. To prove that he’s a winner, not a fool, he begins to oversell the summit, promising that the denuclearization of North Korea is at hand.

Act III: The North Koreans issue a public statement refuting Trump’s boasts. No, they will not denuclearize. And oh, by the way, it’s Trump who must pay tribute to them, not the other way around: If he wants his summit, he should cancel joint U.S.–South Korean exercises.

We’re in Act IV right now—and Act V has yet to be written.

As of midday on May 16, the Trump administration was reacting to the embarrassment of Act III by denying that anything untoward has happened. Throughout his career, Trump has coped with failure by brazenly misrepresenting failure as success.

snip//

A long-ago British politician reputedly once explained the doctrine of cabinet collective government in these memorable terms: “It doesn’t matter what damn lie we tell, so long as we all tell the same damn lie.” The leaky Trump White House has seldom disciplined itself to converge upon a same damn lie. This time, though, they may really have no choice—and may have left the rest of the world with no choice except to pretend to believe them, as the only way to avert a disastrous war under a discredited president.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Rump has never had a single successful negotiation that he was entirely in control of.

Without assistance his dismal track record would be even worse.

The sad thing to me is America WANTED to see a TV Show where the fake CEO forced people into disgusting, sick and twisted competitions and at each others throats.

This is what people WANTED to see.

They think it is fun to watch but if any of them were to have to survive in such an atmosphere they would whither away in a day.

Kind of the same way a certain far left group sits off to the side screaming shit at mainstream, seated Democrats about how they could do the job better, when in fact most of them would not have CLUE ONE what to do if they got the chance.

[dalton99a]

2. He will sell the historic handshake as a fantastic achievement and something impossible for Obama

[Caliman73]

4. Nixon's administration got a hug...

North and South Korea have been there and done that. During the Nixon administration Dear Leader, the first Kim, had the same situation going on, but nothing came of it. The thing about that was that Nixon, for all of his personal demons, was a relatively skilled politician and diplomat and was able to not let the breakdown ruffle things up too much.

Trump is a disaster. His self-esteem is so fragile that he won't know what to do when it falls through except to boast, blame, and threaten.

[JI7]

3. He has always failed at everything.too bad the media doesn't

Seriously report on these things and instead it's just about whether trump will get Nobel m

[Orsino]

5. Trump is barely aware of his failure with NK...

...and wouldn't understand it.