North Korea is Donald Trump’s wet dream. All Trump ever wants is adulation and for everyone to tell him how great he is all the time. Cult worship of the Glorious Leader is a defining feature of the North Korean state. So I think Trump envies and admires Kim Jong-un, who clearly revels in his position as absolute leader, like a toddler in a sandpit who has a toy country to play with. Trump sees Kim Jong-un as a kindred soul and his “spirit animal”.
Absolutely.
And that explains The Donald’s desires.
But I also believe that he’s an easily manipulated puppet for other interests, so what’s in it for the Republicans? For Putin? For Bibi and SA’s MBS?
Trump invades North Korea, Kim surrenders!
That piece is out of the context I was talking about. The crowd is not their boss. They can legally deny access to them unless they comply.
That’s a different situation than things are chaotic and they are concerned about not being able to guarantee safety. I’ve been the protected person in training what were effectively close protection details for deployment. (They didn’t rate the Protective Service Detail course the Army teaches for those assigned to general officers.) I knew I was about to get physically assaulted and bundled off to the HMMWV like a sack of meat. Even with advanced knowledge there was still no real chance to even try to disagree if I wanted to. One of my detail tackled the attacker and the other physically started removing me. I was mostly trying not to face plant and breathe; have you ever tried to run bent over sharply with someone pressing firmly on your shoulder? 
At the point of shots being fired they aren’t going to ask for permission They are going to execute their drill for the situation. That’s a drill the President should have been briefed on previously. The time to disagree is before the incident. I don’t see that being something any President would ever actually order in advance - “don’t touch me if I am being shot at.”
That’s entirely different than “We can’t adequately protect you if you do this dangerous thing, Mr President.” That’s really what we’re talking about here. A risk decision made when there’s time for the President to make their intent known. The Secret Service does not legally give orders to the President. That includes not being able to order them about what risks are too great. They advise, wheedle, etc. If the President wants to go into a less secure and chaotic situation at the Korean DMZ around armed North Korean soldiers legally the Secret Service can’t prevent it. They are really good at keeping Presidents from doing things that are really risky. That’s influencing the boss not any kind of power to disallow it.
Kim gets the benefit of having the President of the United States giving him a state visit and treating him as the leader of a great power.
Trump gets to divert attention away from other recent news items.
Stay classy, Trump admin. Stay classy.
Yup. Trump can’t see the future beyond his own fans adoration for him. He couldn’t care less about the people of the US or the world. Ya see, that’s not his problem. He wants to be Kim Jong Un. Most of the republican Senate IMHO sees it the same way. Looking at you Mitch.
Trump believes that his adoring fans will continue to applaud him long after he’s gone. Sadly, he may be correct. As their life collapses around them, they will chant “Hillary would have been worse”'.
Trump just spoke with alone with Xi and with Putin and then decides to make an impromptu visit to see Kim? And we’re supposed to believe it’s unrelated? :dubious:
I guess we should be glad his staff talked him out of following their first suggestion to kill all of his opponents.
I’m curious if, had Trump continued walking further in than the 20 steps he took, a lot further into North Korea (i.e., the North Korean people took him behind some building out of sight,) just how nervous the Secret Service agents waiting on the southern line of the DMZ would have been, watching their boss disappear out of view.
I’m pretty sure Trump doesn’t see any of those people as “opponents”.
Here is the AP’s live sat feed yesterday of the whole shebang. It has a lot of standing around but those are kinda the best parts because it shows all the tension between N.K. security and the press. The press chit-chat you can hear is interesting too.
Yes, it’s five hours long but a lot of that is just slates (FS grafix with feed info) while they wait and it’s super easy to scan through the time line to the interesting parts. I loved watching this because I’m a television news photographer and I know that gang-bangs like this are hectic as hell. And that’s just the ones without two kooks with nukes and bad hair.
ETA: If you’re at all interested in how photo-op sausage gets made, you’ll enjoy this “behinds-the-scenes” stuff.
I figure he wants to ask Kim how he made it past his first term and what his re-election strategy was.
“Got any daughters?”
Donald Trump, so-called president of the USofA, can’t get along with the leaders of Germany, the UK, Australia or our neighbors on either side, but gets along just fine (so he quite fuckin dumbly believes) with the leaders of Russia and North Korea. Brought to you by (did I mention quite fuckin dumb?) American Republicans.
nm
(duplicate due to whatever the heck is going on with the site, today)
Yes. In addition to the points already made about Trump being determined to undo everything Obama as well as surpass Obama (I expect Trump dreams of getting two Nobel prizes), there is the always-useful “distraction” benefit of the Kim Romance story. And there is so much that must be screened from view by distractions.
Donald gets “news” he can use to keep other stuff hidden; Kim gets to improve and expand his nuclear program, without interference.
Even-steven.
Keeping friends close and enemies closer. Works out well in many cases.
If you work with your enemy, friends and others will think you are a sell-out because they are still being bullied by the same.
They won’t get along well with this president because he is unpredictable in the eyes of other leaders, which is a fantastic characteristic since the last 3 presidents were very predictable. Everyone else forgets the past 3 licked the taints of other countries, including enemies. They got a pass. (Yes, even G.W.) Trump does it and he doesn’t.
I wonder why that is? Just more “Orange Man Bad” nonsense.
P.S. Hello everyone. I’ve still been here in the shadows, watching.
Shoulda stayed there.