With regard to the on-again, off-again summit between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the feeling is that it is going to happen, if not solely for the sake of the event and the photo opportunity. But make no mistake, Mr. Trump decision to rush into this summit diminishes the status of the United States and is amateurish in deal-making at the least.
It's a lose-lose for President Trump. He's not going to get the concession he wants, which is total denuclearization of North Korea while the North Korean dictator gets recognized with equal status to the president. Way to go, Mr. Trump.
As Victor Cha explained today, North Korea who has been building toward nuclear capability for the past 50 or so years is not going to just give it up. Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) answered Chuck Todd's query by saying that the best we could hope for is that North Korea winds down their nuclear program over time. And what makes us think that Kim Jong Un will act in good faith? Answer: Nothing. Yet, the United States going to give the sanctions relief for saying a few conciliatory words? That's called 'getting played.'
And though China doesn't have a seat at the table, it is definitely pulling the strings. President Xi is the one to come out ahead in all this. He'll be able to resume economic assistance unfettered with North Korea while getting help to put ZTE back into full business in the United States, something that even many Republicans in Congress have come out against due to the national security risk. Senator Flake called it 'commercial espionage.'
One has to wonder when this administration is going to get on the same page with regard to North Korea, let alone anything else. National Security Advisor John Bolton wants to send this country to war with North Korea, and Iran for that matter. The lives of American soldiers amount to very little in his historically ill-advised hawkish ideology. He cited the Libya model, and we know how that turned out for Muammar Gaddifi. Kim certainly has that in mind and simply will not give up his nukes, not now and not eventually. And speaking of Iran, Andrea Mitchell, who always makes a good point, asked the question of having thorough inspections. How would inspections in North Korea be more thorough than the internationally-back strict regime of inspections of Iran's nuclear program, a deal that Mr. Trump pulled out of.
Not only is Mr. Trump succeeding at making a mockery of the office of the presidency of the United States domestically, he's doing his best to achieve the same status on the international stage as well.
Let's end it there for today...
Panel: Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report; Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post; Matthew Continetti, Washington Free Beacon
A couple more things...
NFL owners are gutless. It's true that the kneeling during the national anthem wasn't a real issue until President Trump made it one. His state that players who kneel should be in the country is beyond the pale. The owners of the NFL teams gave into this bullying and therefore really aren't deserving of the profits they're trying so hard to protect. As for fans who disagree with the protest, if you can not separate your feelings of not liking it while respecting an individual's right to protest, you're not a patriotic American.
And speaking of patriotic Americans, as always on Memorial Day we should be thinking of our troops who put their lives on the line daily to protect our rights to liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness. However, this Memorial Day it's impossible not to think of the fact that more students have died in school shootings than active service members have died in combat this year. Depending on what site you look up, the exact numbers are different but they all show the same dynamic - twice as many students have been killed than soldiers in 2018.
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