I know the focus here is Iran but don't miss lots of good old Trump misrepresentation & lying about N Korea.
THREAD
Trump:
A) still talks about 'beautiful letters' from Kim Jong Un as if flattery means anything after 2 years of negotiation stalemate.
B) subtly changes from /1
THREAD
Trump:
A) still talks about 'beautiful letters' from Kim Jong Un as if flattery means anything after 2 years of negotiation stalemate.
B) subtly changes from /1
saying 'no NK testing,' as he did for the last 2 years, to 'no nuclear testing.' The reason is, bc the NK no-test gentlemen's agreement collapsed last week, and everyone soon expects a NK missile test. So this is a misrepresentation.
C) suggests that previous to his admin the /2
C) suggests that previous to his admin the /2
NKs had tested a lot but then stopped bc of him. This is a lie. NK has tested a lot during T's presidency, including both its largest nuke and longest-range ICBM tests.
D) speaks as if he alone got back US hostages. This is a lie. Previous POTUSes got back US prisoners. /3
D) speaks as if he alone got back US hostages. This is a lie. Previous POTUSes got back US prisoners. /3
E) speaks as if US military remains from the Korean War are still coming home. This is a misrepresentation. That program was stopped by the US side after the Hanoi summit collapsed.
F) vigorously asserts that Obama was on a sure track to war with NK. This is one of T's oldest /4
F) vigorously asserts that Obama was on a sure track to war with NK. This is one of T's oldest /4
most favorite lies on NK, probably bc it tarnishes his hated predecessor Obama. This has been debunked dozens of times, not that 10-lies-a-day Trump cares, but still, the truth matters. Obama made one good faith negotiation effort with NK, the Leap Day Deal. The NKs cheated on /5
it, so Obama slipped into accepting the stalemate - 'strategic patience' - while boosting sanctions somewhat and reinforcing US relationships with South Korea and Japan. He then told Trump that NK would likely be his toughest foreign policy challenge. Multiple Obama officials /6
have debunked the idea that they were teeing up a war for Hillary Clinton to pursue. And Trump naturally has no evidence for this assertion. Would Clinton have used force? Perhaps, but then T flirted with it too in 2017. Can Obama's record be criticized as buck-passing to his /7
predecessor? Of course, but you could say about every previous US admin too. Remember how NK was a founder of the axis of evil and 'we don't negotiate with evil, we defeat it'? Nothing came of that either. I doubt Obama could have done much better than he did given just how /8
very difficult the NK nut is to crack. We've been working on it for decades without much luck, and T has been no better. His summits were empty photo-ops which changed nothing on the ground about nukes, missiles, launchers, human rights, and the other issues we care about. If /9
anything, one could argue that Trump has been softer on NK than his predecessors by giving Kim the legitimation he craved- a POTUS meeting - for nothing. T is obsessed with appearing 'strong,' yet in practical terms on NK, he's been a dove and an easy mark for Kim's flattery. END
