President Trump has once again confounded his opponents, leaving them unsure of themselves, by announcing his intention to accept a face to face meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
In his usual unpredictable style, Trump used Twitter to make the announcement. MSNBC and CNN were caught off guard as some of their on-air reporters praised the announcement before higher-ups apparently got to them and made them declare Trump was grandstanding and would bring nothing but disaster down on the U.S.
Thae Yong Ho, one of the highest-ranking officials ever to defect from North Korea, believes Trump’s apparent chaotic style works to his advantage when dealing with Kim Jong Un. He said, “The unpredictability has worked to some extent.”
One of the highest-ranking officials ever to defect from North Korea, Ho doesn’t agree with pundits who argue that Donald Trump is reckless and tempting by threatening and taunting Kim Jong Un. He said:
North Korean leaders perceived past American presidents such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as “very gentle … When Trump came up with ‘fire and fury,’ that kind of [phrase] was never used by any American.”
Immediately after Trump’s announcement, CNN’s Erin Burnett and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews heaped praise on the President with words like “remarkable,” “significant,” “stunning,” and “incredible.” At 7:35 p.m. Eastern Time, Burnett exclaimed to his viewers:
“Just an extraordinary evening and, of course, opening the door to the big question: If President Trump can truly solve this problem, that would be going down as a great President and there’s no way around that. That is the reality here.”
It didn’t take long, however, for sources like the Washington Post to run headlines like The White House’s complete disarray on North Korea continues.
James Downie of the Post wrote:
It was no surprise that President Trump caught his White House off guard last week when he accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s invitation to a summit between the two leaders. Just hours prior, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had said the two countries were “a long ways from negotiations.” So it was to be expected that White House officials would struggle in the immediate aftermath to provide details about the summit. But with the shock worn off now, the president’s team remarkably has no plan for North Korea. For that, there’s no excuse.
Perhaps this is the reason that President Trump “unexpectedly” fired Tillerson in yet another Tweet. Tillerson received the news only four hours after he returned to Washington from an official trip to Africa.
The narrative spun by the mainstream media is that Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing because there is “chaos” in the White House. In truth, no one outside the White House was surprised by Tillerson being fired since rumors had been circulating for months that his days were numbered.
Dismissing Tillerson had been discussed at multiple levels for a long time, said a senior White House official, adding that the North Korea overture and invitation brought more urgency to the decision. Two officials said Trump wanted to have a new team in place ahead of an upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as well as trade talks.
The Sunday morning news shows were filled with White House officials refusing to answer questions about the North Korea summit.
White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah was asked On ABC News’ This Week on Sunday, “Can you tell us anything more about when or where this meeting is going to happen?” The panel all accused Shah of ducking the question but the pattern for the day became apparent. There would be no room for leaks on this one.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo (now replacing Tillerson) told Face the Nation, “We have gotten more than any previous administration, an agreement to not continue testing nuclear weapons and their missile program.”
The Washington Post answer to that was: “Pompeo is right that this would be a real accomplishment — if it were true.”
Ho believes the reason Kim Jong Un backed down on his plans to test-fire a missile toward the U.S. territory of Guam is Trump’s resolve and unpredictability.
It seems voters knew what they what they were doing when, after a generation of predictable appeasement, they cast their ballot for Donald Trump. While those in the press react, over 60 million voters acted and are glad for it.
~ American Liberty Report
