What a disaster!
It achieved nothing!
Waste of time!
Such a sell-out!
Trump’s a LOSER!
The verdicts on President Trump’s unprecedented Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un surged in fast and furious – many of them openly scornful and hostile.
Of course, the same people spewing such instantly negative, cynical bile would have been saying the complete opposite if the summit had been driven by former President Barack Obama.
Scornful verdicts were fast and furious after the summit, calling Trump a loser and the meetings a disaster – but they would have said the opposite were it Obama and not Trump
We know this because we saw, heard and read them saying it when Obama negotiated a similar peace deal with America’s other most hated enemy, Iran – and earned himself a Nobel Peace Prize.
However, it’s also true to say that the people immediately lauding Trump’s summit as a spectacular, unqualified success were the same ones screaming blue murder at Obama for what he did with Iran.
Such is the absurd hypocrisy on all sides in current US political discourse.
For those not engaged in perpetual petty partisan point-scoring, the reality of what happened in Singapore last night is that it was neither an abject failure nor an unqualified success.
It could be the start of something that ends up as a truly historic peace settlement in the most dangerous part of the world.
Or it could simply fizzle away into a pointless nothing-burger as both sides return to the decades-long cold war that has simmered with bitter tension along the North Korean Peninsular.
Time, and, I suspect, a lot of patience, will tell.
But watching the extraordinary scenes as they unfurled live on TV, I chose to suspend my own disbelief and natural journalistic scepticism, and see the bigger picture.
This, by any yardstick, was an astounding summit.
The President of the United States flew half way across the world to sit down with one of the world’s most ruthless dictators.
They shook hands, they had a private meeting, they lunched, they strolled through a garden, they laughed and joked, and they spoke to the media in an effusive manner about each other.
This could simply fizzle away into a pointless nothing-burger, but watching these extraordinary scenes as they unfurled live on TV, I chose to suspend my own disbelief and natural journalistic scepticism, and see the bigger picture
The President flew half way across the world to sit down with one of the world’s most ruthless dictators. They shook hands, they had a private meeting, they lunched, they strolled through a garden, they laughed and joked, and they spoke in an effusive manner about each other
Those are six things I never thought I’d see in my lifetime, for starters.
Then they sat at a table and signed a deal.
The contents of that agreement are not particularly new or ground breaking.
But what makes this a game-changer is the fact it was negotiated face-to-face between two men who until recently were threatening to nuke each other’s countries into extinction.
It was only a few months ago that I warned Trump to cut out his bellicose ‘my nuclear button’s bigger than yours’ rhetoric, fearing he might taunt Jong-un into some kind of military attack that would be catastrophic for the world.
Well, like so many people who felt the same concern, I was wrong about that.
Trump’s deliberately inflammatory and aggressive tactics worked, and forced Jong-un to the negotiating table.
This was partly due to tougher economic sanctions, led by China.
And it was partly due to a pincer movement of smart political pressure applied by North Korea’s neighbouring countries like South Korea and Japan.
But it was largely due to Trump’s personal will and desire to get a deal done.
And last night, we saw him and Kim Jong-un embracing each other like long lost brothers and talking boldly of a brave new world, leaving the past enmities behind.
Of course, some of what I saw made my stomach churn.
I can’t pretend I didn’t want to physically puke when I heard Trump describe Jong-un as a ‘very talented person’.
We saw him and Kim Jong-un embracing each other like long lost brothers and sure some of what I saw made my stomach churn. I can’t pretend I didn’t want to puke when I heard Trump describe Jong-un as a ‘very talented person’
It doesn’t take much talent to inherit a dictatorship from your equally repellent father and continue to torture, murder and suppress your own people in a disgustingly depraved manner.
But Trump’s spent 50 years spewing false platitudes at rivals to get what he wants and if flattering killer Kim’s stupendous ego is what it takes to help make him give up his nuclear arsenal, than so be it.
The President seems unusually self-aware about the gamble he has taken.
‘I may be wrong,’ he admitted. ‘I may stand before you in six months and say, “Hey, I was wrong.” Then he smirked: ‘I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of an excuse.’
But he says he trusts Jong-un to deliver, and who knows, maybe he’s right to take such a huge and apparently absurd leap of faith?
I remember Bill Clinton once telling me that Vladimir Putin ALWAYS kept his word to him when they shook hands and agreed something.
If a ruthless rogue like Putin can be trusted with a handshake, who’s to say Jong-un may not also have the same old-school philosophy towards pressing the flesh on a deal?
Perhaps that’s why Trump agreed to meet him – so he could personally look him in the eye, shake his hand, and work out if indeed he is able to trust him.
Either way, surely it’s worth a go?
What, in the end, does America really have to lose?
Yes, Trump’s legitimised a nasty dictator and afforded him the commensurate world leader status that Jong-un has long craved.
But in the wider scheme of protecting the American people – now in direct reachable line of fire from North Korea’s nuclear weapons – so what?
‘Our eyes are wide open but peace is always worth the effort,’ said Trump, ‘especially in this case.’
Yes, it is.
Donald Trump’s not everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, he’s many people’s arsenic.
But his uniquely abrasive, uncompromising, bull-in-a-china-shop, unpredictable and offensive style sometimes has its merits.
He doesn’t play by the rules of politics.
Trump’s not everyone’s cup of tea but his uniquely abrasive, uncompromising, bull-in-a-china-shop, unpredictable and offensive style sometimes has its merits. He plays by his own rules
Instead, he plays by his own rules – the ones that made him one of America’s most successful businessmen, and now the President of the United States.
Trump believes everything in life is a negotiation, and last night’s summit represented the biggest deal of his life.
It’s too early to declare it a success, and certainly too early to dismiss it as a failure.
But by sitting down with Kim Jong-un, he’s got nearer to peace with North Korea than any of his predecessors.
Of course, there’s plenty of work still to be done, and plenty of historical pitfalls to avoid.
But only Trump’s most churlish critics would begrudge him a celebratory Big Mac when he gets back to the White House today.
The world now feels a little safer.