On Monday, Trump sent out a couple of tweets praising himself for the great deal he got in his trade talks with China. In case you missed them amid the morass of tweets, they were --
And then another, four minutes later --
Never mind that after the Trump tariffs China actually signed a deal with Russia for soybeans rather than the U.S. And never mind, too, that what he says about China buying products has zero to do with lowering trade deficit. (As an economist explained, the way this works is that the added income into the U.S. would only be used to buy Chinese-made products, which keeps the deficit the same.) But never mind all that. Because the bigger problem is that yesterday -- the very next day (you can see the timestamp on his two tweets above -- Trump had a brief Q&A with the president of South Korea. And in one of his comments, Trump said -- "I'm not pleased how the China trade talks went." No, really. Barely 24 hours later. Today's question, class: How on earth does he expect ANYONE to believe anything he says?? If he doesn't think North Korea follows his tweets & words, he's wrong. Just because National Security Director (sic) John Bolton (sick) can go on the TV over the weekend and with as straight a face say that it's a good thing the planned-meeting with North Korea is so soon because that means Trump doesn't have time prepare for it and can instead just get a real, human assessment of Kim Jong-Un doesn't mean the rest of us have to buy that -- because it's not how world diplomacy and de-nuclearization talks works. This is like the guy in my college dorm sophomore year who would stand in the hallway goofing off with everyone on the last night before his term papers would be due, having waited until then to write them because, as he insisted, "I think better under pressure." And get an F. (And yes, that's true, though I can't swear he would get F's. However, what's also true is that the next year he was elected president of the Inter-Fraternity Council on campus. Just the kind of guy you'd expect to be president of the frats! My only concern is that today he's working in the Trump administration...) "He actually put us all at risk" takes on a new and substantive resonance when it's backed by reality.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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