Thread by @Robert_E_Kelly

Since Trump will meet N Korean leader Kim Jong Un again next month, here’s a brief reminder of the clown-show mess that was their first meeting in SG. And does anyone really expect this one will be any different?

1. T broke with decades of US policy that a POTUS does not meet /1

w/ the NK totalitarian leadership barring a serious concession, bc a POTUS meet is a big symbolic win for Pyongyang. But T gave away the SG meeting for nothing. Apparently this was ‘bold’ or the ‘art of the deal.’ Actually it was a huge missed opportunity, bc T is incompetent. /2

2. T went into SG grossly unprepared & winged it. He didn’t read up & didn’t listen to his briefings. Bc he had no idea what he was doing, he was forced to show that bizarre pseudo-movie trailer to make his case to Kim (vox.com/world/2018/6/1…). The technical groups were still /3

debating the final terms of the statement the day before the signatures, which is likely why the statement was aspirational and bereft of detail or hard commitments. The N Koreans, by contrast, were better prepared; stage-managed it well for maximum publicity; and churned out /4

a celebratory video for KCNA immediately on KJU’s return to NK (cnn.com/2018/06/14/asi…).

3. T made another unreciprocated concession to Kim in their meetings – to end US military drills w/ SK. T consulted neither the ROKG nor the US military when he did this off-the-cuff. /5

T’s disinterest in alliances is evident in Asia as well as Europe.

4. The post-event press conference was an unhinged meltdown where T admitted that he hadn’t sleep in two days; spontaneously threw out the removal of US forces from S Korea; called US-SK military exercises /6

‘wargames;’ complained that those drills were too expensive bc of the fuel costs of US planes flying from Guam; got most animated when complaining that SK were free-riders; and suggested building condos on the N Korean coast. All that in just 80 minutes. It was an appalling /7

embarrassment. Go watch for yourself: .

5. The entire event was clothed in farce. There were T and KJU impersonators running all over SG. KJU took a viral selfie with the smiling PM of SG. Restaurants were serving T-K burgers and lattes. Dennis Rodman /8

cried on CNN wearing a MAGA hat & PotCoin t-shirt: cnn.com/videos/world/2…. Foreign reporters were chasing KCNA reporters around the streets of SG. Even that hack BBC Dad showed up in SG on BBC.

6. The final declaration – the Sentosa Declaration – was unworthy of direct POTUS /9

involvement. It was nothing typical State Department diplomats could not have gotten, despite all that absurd hype that ‘this time is different’ and Trump getting a Nobel. The only concrete concession T got was NK cooperation on Korean War MIAs.This was added late bc T needed /10

something to show for the trip, and the issue would play well on Fox and with his voters. But on the strategic issues – nukes, missiles, launchers – T got nothing. And in the following months, Pompeo has still gotten nothing, barring a few facility build-downs whose value is /11

unverifiable bc NK will not permit inspectors.

In short, SG was strategically a wash, politically a victory for the North, and a general embarrassment for the US. Does anyone really think Trump will take this next meeting more seriously, listen to his briefers or read the /12

materials, much less make any effort to educate himself on nuclear & missile tech or Korean history? Of course not. He’ll wing it again and make who-knows-what concessions to keep the façade of a ‘win’ w/ NK, bc he needs it domestically where he’s under siege as incompetent /13

and corrupt. I still can't understand why anyone thinks allowing someone this inept and ill-informed to lead the negotiations on something this important is a good idea. Trump is scarcely POTUS in any normal, traditional sense; he's playing one on TV. This is a big risk…again.