November 19th 2019

By Abby Zimet

Common Dreams

Art of the Hopelessly Incompetent Deal Redux: Oh, look, North Korea's fave murderous despot has played our hapless 'We Fell In Love' Dear Leader again. It's been 18 months since Trump came back from his much-hyped photo-op with Kim Jong-Un to proclaim that, "Everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea" - this, despite the consensus Trump had given away the farm by making multiple concessions, starting with handing Pyongyang the global legitimacy it's sought for decades, without making any progress toward denuclearization in return. Since then, further negotiations have twice broken down, but Trump has kept  groveling - "He wrote me beautiful letters" - before the guy who routinely kills his relatives and any other perceived enemies. That cringey dynamic continued to this weekend, as the US called off joint military exercises with South Korea in an "act of goodwill" toward the North and Kim brazenly responded with two military drills at which he urged combat pilots to prepare against enemies “armed to the teeth” and vowed to build an “invincible army.”

Still, Trump fumbled on. Facing a year-end deadline and eager to achieve another summit - or anything in the face of a lurking impeachment - he again sucked up to his brutal pen pal Sunday after seeing a link from Korea's state media accusing Joe Biden of having “the temerity to dare slander the dignity of (Kim's) supreme leadership,” presumably in Biden's ad blasting Trump for praising "dictators and tyrants." “Rabid dogs like Biden can hurt lots of people," said the KCNA. “They must be beaten to death with a stick.” The heroic Trump demurred, slightly. Biden is "somewhat better" than a rabid dog, he tweeted, before rushing on with the non- sequitur, "I am the only one who can get you where you have to be. You should act quickly, get the deal done," and cheerily signing off, "See you soon!” Actually, not, came the frosty reply. On Monday, Kim's Foreign Minister noted that with "no particular improvement" in their relations, "We are no longer interested in talks that are useless to us." "As we have got nothing in return," he said, "we will no longer gift the U.S. president with something he can brag about." So yeah: Now even North Korea is trolling Trump. So much winning!

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