Jab they meet: Why we’re so hooked to the Donald Trump-Kim Jong-Un hook-up
It’s finally happening! The President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, aka @realdonaldtrump, is slated to meet with the "little rocket man", as Trump called Kim Jung Un, the North Korean dictator, on 12 June, 2018, in Singapore at 9am local time.
The two men will meet in a summit which aims to "discuss de-necularisation of the Korean Peninsula". The world’s eyes are focused on this meeting. In fact, tomes are already being written on the "historic" nature of this "unprecedented" event.
Interestingly, Trump’s has been a "chaos Presidency". The Twitter-in-Chief has been, to put it mildly, unpredictable and political correctness has definitively gone out of the White House’s window. President-aspirant Trump was instinctive and bad-mouthed his opponents recklessly. But nothing, just nothing he said swayed his base from voting him in. He promised to "tear down" the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, the Iran Nuclear deal, the Paris Climate protocol, et al, in an "America First" policy.
And yes, he has stood by his word and torn the agreements down — with no Plan B in place.
He has boldly, bravely disrupted Obama Healthcare, pulled down environmental regulations and imposed tariffs on his allies. He has promised a "Trade War" even with China and yes, now we all know he can do this.
But there are things we still do not know.
Like, the world does not know how to handle this disruptive leader of the Free World. He went into the "Oh My God 7" — or, the OMG 7 (as G7 is sometimes alluded to) late and left early, promising to sign the Communique, then tweeting from his Airforce One, en-route to Singapore, that "the US would not sign the joint communique". He then followed this up with tweets saying that the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was "dishonest" and "weak".
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Fair Trade is now to be called Fool Trade if it is not Reciprocal. According to a Canada release, they make almost 100 Billion Dollars in Trade with U.S. (guess they were bragging and got caught!). Minimum is 17B. Tax Dairy from us at 270%. Then Justin acts hurt when called out!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2018
Why should I, as President of the United States, allow countries to continue to make Massive Trade Surpluses, as they have for decades, while our Farmers, Workers & Taxpayers have such a big and unfair price to pay? Not fair to the PEOPLE of America! $800 Billion Trade Deficit...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2018
....And add to that the fact that the U.S. pays close to the entire cost of NATO-protecting many of these same countries that rip us off on Trade (they pay only a fraction of the cost-and laugh!). The European Union had a $151 Billion Surplus-should pay much more for Military!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2018
....Germany pays 1% (slowly) of GDP towards NATO, while we pay 4% of a MUCH larger GDP. Does anybody believe that makes sense? We protect Europe (which is good) at great financial loss, and then get unfairly clobbered on Trade. Change is coming!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2018
Great to be in Singapore, excitement in the air!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2018
Sorry, we cannot let our friends, or enemies, take advantage of us on Trade anymore. We must put the American worker first!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2018
What Trudeau got was mild for Trump though. Calling people names has been his calling card since he went into campaign mode. His rhetoric has only swelled — "Lying Ted" for Ted Cruz, "Crooked Hillary" for Ms Clinton, "Little Rocket Man" for Kim Jong-Un, etc. At the end of his Presidency, there could well be a glossary of such names and terms and the approximately 3,515 lies uttered by him — at last count — reportedly notched up by the Washington Post since his January 30, 2017 swearing-in.
What a Presidency!
For those of us who follow US politics and international relations, Trump is not a nightmare but a dream come true. There is non-stop nonsense — sorry, Breaking News — and we are now reaching another brave pinnacle with the Singapore Summit.
The on-off-and-on-again Summit is totally unpredictable and bizarre, a sea change in how powerful political leaders meet. The world is watching with bated breath now as to whether Trump and Kim would hit it off. Trump has earlier boasted – no one can blame him for being unduly modest – that, "I am a deal maker. I will know in a minute from my gut whether Kim Jung-Un was serious and any purpose would be served in the meeting. We have no illusions and would walk away if it was a non-starter".
In fact, Trump has deliberately lowered the bar of expectations, as foreign affairs pundits have said.
Kim Jung-Un has already got what he wanted — endorsement to meet the leader of the Free World, which North Korea has been yearning for. But for Trump, and the world, the meeting has been a let-down with too many concessions given by the US for a ruthless dictator and his regime.
But catch Trump losing sleep over such criticisms — no way! Trump cares two hoots for he is on a "rollercoaster ride from episode to episode as if in a reality show" and his diplomatic moves are unfathomable for even the masters of international politics. As Thomas Friedman put it, "Trump sucks out your brain and his base loves him for his despicably deplorable political incorrectness and idiosyncrasies, something the US and the world has not seen before. The US Presidency has become a reality show and the US President a rock star in action without a script in place."
Really?
Come on. Let’s get real. The Americans ought to know who they voted in. They have got who they deserved.
And, for us hacks, Trump is pure fun. Add the "little rocket man" to the mix now and it only gets spicier. Would Trump live-tweet to Kim or talk to him? Or will he tweet away to glory when flying back? OMG, what a photo-op this will be! A sight for sore eyes. If the two leaders were to hug each other…! It would make, as Trump often remarks, "uuuuge" news!
The Trump-Kim meeting is in fact a mouth-watering prospect for in an era of cacophonous ideological fights, where everyone has started to sound predictable and dull, when two "originals" — two entirely unpredictable ones — get together, unscripted, to perform whatever roles they please, no one knows what could follow. Would the deal maker of the Art of the Deal fame make a deal before he himself would tear it down? Or would Kim promise complete de-nuclearisation — a promise he may or may not even keep?
Whatever the outcome, the sheer unpredictability of this unprecedented summit suffices to keep us hooked. We need nothing more as the optics will happily take over the substance of the meeting.
Miss this for nothing for we are at the crossroads of either a huge big hit or a massive flop show here — as well as "History" itself being in the making, live on TV, yet utterly unscripted.