As a matter of substance, the Singapore summit achieved less than nothing. It was a defeat for U. S. world influence and for democratic decency.<\/b>
\nThe headline writers adore the word \u201chistoric.\u201d It was ubiquitous in reporting on the April meeting between Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in. Kim shook Moon\u2019s hand and then guided him over the military demarcation line to step onto North Korean territory. This prompted swoons.
What rot. If that was a bona fide gesture of peaceful intent, time will tell. In the meantime, let\u2019s assume it was a stunt.
So, too, with the summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump, though in this case the media hype couldn\u2019t compete with Trump\u2019s own. He has basked in talk of a Nobel Peace Prize and predicted that he and the butcher of Pyongyang were \u201cgoing to have a great discussion and a terrific relationship.\u201d
Obviously panting for a meeting, Trump was reportedly livid with national security adviser John Bolton, whose May comments about a \u201cLibya solution\u201d to the nuclear weapons problem apparently spooked Kim into withdrawing from the summit. Trump insisted that it was he who cancelled, just as he did with the Philadelphia Eagles\u2019 White House visit.
But he showed quite a lot of ankle in his note. \u201cI felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me,\u201d he cooed, closing with words conceding that it was Kim, not Trump, who had actually cancelled. \u201cIf you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write.\u201d
Kim reeled in his catch. He sent an oversized letter Trump could pose with, grinning like a winner of the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes.
Why is our president smiling? You can always argue that democratic leaders must treat with dictators and even villains of various stripes for the sake of winning a war or securing the peace. You can even argue that sometimes presidents flatter unsavory leaders to build trust and ease tensions. But no historical comparisons can illuminate Trump\u2019s ricochets between hysterical threats (\u201cfire and fury\u201d) and pusillanimous praise (\u201cvery talented\u201d) without any substantive change on the part of the dictator.
What has changed since the State of the Union address in which Trump honored the memory of Otto Warmbier and detailed the atrocities of the North Korean regime? In gratitude for the exchange of pleasantries, the release of a few hostages and vague offers of \u201cdenuclearization,\u201d Trump has made himself Kim\u2019s doormat.
As a matter of substance, the Singapore summit achieved less than nothing. It was a profound defeat for U. S. world influence and for democratic decency, arguably the worst summit outcome since Yalta. Kim promised to consider \u201cdenuclearization,\u201d exactly as his father and grandfather had done repeatedly over the past several decades \u2014 breaking their promises each and every time. For this puff of cotton candy, Trump agreed to halt \u201cU. S. war games\u201d (using the North Korean term for joint military exercises with South Korea), which Trump himself called provocative! He invited Kim to the White House. He also issued the risible tweet announcing, ahem, peace in our time: \u201cThere is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.\u201d
It\u2019s difficult to determine just how stupid Trump thinks the American people are. But there is no question that Trump\u2019s affection for strongmen and thugs, evident before in his praise of the Chinese murderers of Tiananmen and his warm words for Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte and Xi Jinping, has now extended to the worst tyrant\/killer on the planet. Trump did far more than overlook Kim\u2019s atrocious human rights abuses; he became Kim\u2019s PR man: \u201cHe\u2019s a very talented man, and I also learned he loves his country very much.\u201d He has a \u201cgreat personality\u201d and is \u201cvery smart.\u201d
Trump granted Kim\u2019s legitimacy: \u201cHis country does love him. His people, you see the fervor. They have a great fervor.\u201d
In 2014, a United Nations report concluded that North Korea\u2019s crimes against humanity \u201centail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.\u201d
What of all that? Trump is understanding, even impressed. \u201cHey, he\u2019s a tough guy. When you take over a country \u2014 a tough country, tough people \u2014 and you take it over from your father, I don\u2019t care who you are, what you are, how much of an advantage you have. If you can do that at 27 years old, I mean, that\u2019s one in 10,000 that could do that. So he\u2019s a very smart guy. He\u2019s a great negotiator.\u201d
What was Trump\u2019s chief argument in 2016? The U. S. had been the victim of \u201cbad deals\u201d with other countries and he was the great deal-maker. He fingered the Iran deal as the worst deal in history. His defenders will excuse the truckling to Kim as a clever gambit to extract concessions.
But Kim has offered absolutely nothing. All of the concessions have come from the United States, including the most crucial one: We\u2019ve put ourselves on the same moral plane as North Korea.
That\u2019s what Make America Great Again has achieved.<\/p>\n

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