Oakvillian

"Elitist left" is a pejorative term whichever way you cook it. It would be more helpful to a constructive conversation if the editorializing were kept out of the commentary.
The difficulty most people (including myself) have with Trump is not that he is damned whatever he does - it is that he appears to have no compass of his own, and his course is utterly swayed by the last person he spoke to (or the last piece of Fox & Friends he watched on his PVR). There are far too many instances of policymaking-by-twitter coincident with discussions on TV programs for it to be random happenstance.
Indeed. Neither of which would be helpful. But I really don't think that is the crux of the criticism of Trump here. My issue with the President is that he does not appear to listen to, learn from, or even understand the advice that he is given. I criticize my teenage children for that attitude, and would expect better of a man as powerful as POTUS.
It would be lovely to think that a breakthrough is imminent, but I really don't think it is. I think Trump's naivete is being played. I think Kim is well advised - and follows that advice - on the narcissistic tendencies of the US President, and by massaging his ego by allowing Trump to think he's on the verge of a breakthrough, DPRK's take is that they will be able to achieve a bargaining advantage that has not been available to them with previous administrations.

dave_j

Wonderful news!

I've just been appointed Secretary of State to the US. Ain't Trump the best thing since sliced Bread, wonderful man and all those scandals, well they're fake news, I believe Fox?

Oh No! Just been tweeted that I've been fired. What an utter B*****d, string him up and it's all true, CNN forever!

Shard

However naive or misinformed Trump may be, opening a dialogue with NK seems to be a step in the right direction.

Oakvillian

There was always some sort of dialogue with NK. Until, that is, Trump started insulting Kim Jong-Un and the back-channels through South Korean diplomatic intermediaries were all closed down. Trump is only making a big song-and-dance about restoring something that he screwed up in the first place. I don't believe for one second that anything substantive will come out of some photo-op meeting between Kim and Trump - except, perhaps, a big ego massage for both leaders, who will each think they've got one over on the other.

The biggest concern with Trump's approach to every foreign policy initiative seems to be that he sees it all as a zero-sum game. In order to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and appease the hard-line Israeli right, the Palestinians have to lose all realistic hope of a two-state solution. In order to try and "win" a better deal for the US at the NAFTA table, the only answer is to screw Canada and Mexico and damn the consequences. In order to shore up ailing primary industries in steel and aluminium, the rest of the world is dragged into a trade war. So in order to look good with "little rocket man," who is the Trump administration throwing under the bus? South Korea and Japan, for a start, I suspect.

The flip side, of course, is that very little of what Trump thinks he wants actually transpires in the real world. He had to scramble to appease Beijing and reiterate the US's "one China" stance after taking phone calls from the president of Taiwan. He's not yet managed to entirely derail the Israel-Palestine issue; the embassy is still in Tel Aviv. Despite scuppering TPP with the stroke of an executive pen, he's not yet managed to screw up NAFTA; negotiations are ongoing. He's not yet managed to screw up global trade in steel and aluminium; blanket exemptions have been handed to three of the four biggest trading partners. Hopefully he can manage not to screw up the fragile situation in the Korean peninsula, either.

moneypenny20

That all means he's winning, yes?

Oakvillian

So, so much winning. Winning bigly.

caretaker

Lie-O-Meter still spinning like a prayer wheel.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4084481/d...ustin-trudeau/

ann m

I like this article today - why doesn't Trump fire people face-to-face.

Why doesn't Trump fire people to their face? - BBC News

To me, it just highlights (one more time, as if it were needed) that the man is horrendous in so many ways....

Shard

It's Sad! that he treats the US government as an extension of his game show. Historians will look back at this period with incredulity.

dave_j

Absolutely. Careers will be made, experts will arise and books and papers miles high will be written seeking to explain the circumstances, process, outcomes, failures, successes etc etc of this period of US governance.

It will be grist for the intellectual mill and huge numbers of otherwise mediochre lecturers, commentators, journalists, psychologists and TV political hacks will praise the day that Trump was elected. You can see it happening today as we witness the gravy train leaving the station.

'To what end?' I hear you ask. 'To absolutely no end. The worker in the factory, the plumber fixing the leak and the honest hard working teacher, they're the ones who'll end up paying the bill.'

morpeth

So he can fire people to their face on television, but not in person.

philat98

Robert Mueller, please step forward (next week?)

Danny B

If Trump fires Mueller, I hear rumours that that could be the end of the Trump presidency.

Shard

in what way? Collapse of GOP support?

kimilseung

I think recent talk of this nature, is based on words from Lindsay Graham.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...residency.html