#87 - "Hopefully, You Will Give Me Credit"

Trump walked out of his Thursday meeting with the South Korean National Security Advisor which covered his prospective face-to-face meeting with Kim Jong-un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, and while the first inclination of the previous 44 US Presidents would have been to talk it all over with their Secretaries of State, their go-to guys on all affairs foreign, Trump’s instincts took him instead to the pool of reporters down the hall, to announce that there would be a major statement on North Korea. 

VP Mike Pence, dutifully in tow, (because being VP for this great man has unequivocally been the greatest honor of his life) was stone cold silent, perhaps because he was in a complete state of shock that Trump would actually do this, but more likely because he had no idea what crazy thing Trump would do or say next.  In other words, it was just another day at the White House.

The formal announcement that Trump would meet Kim by May 2018  to “achieve denuclearization”  was actually made on Thursday evening on the steps of the White House, by the South Koreans on behalf of the U.S. Administration, apparently because recent staff turnover was much worse than any of us really knew, and we were now reaching out to the foreign offices of Robert Half to back fill the open slots in the White House Communication team.

Indicative of his obsession with feeding his own ego, an excited President Donald J Trump told Jon Karl of ABC News, "Hopefully, you will give me credit," a reference to his bombshell announcement, and also to the undeniable evidence that he is totally clueless as to all the steps that remain ahead.

“Hopefully, you will give me credit”. 

Uggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Those six words sum up with everything that is completely wrong with this President

In his mind, our President has already won the Super Bowl, taken home the MVP trophy and will soon be the star of the victory parade on Pennsylvania Avenue riding on top of a tank (there will be lots of tanks) to the cheers of the adoring crowd,….and he hasn’t even completed the first day of training camp.  He is still waiting in line to get his jock strap.

In our country of over 330 million Americans, it’s all about him.  It always has been, and always will be

Look I get it, he has been getting hammered by the Liberal (but accurate) Press for everything, Russia, Jared, Stormy, record staff turnover, tariffs, more Russia, his failure to advance discussions on immigration or gun legislation and his overall, but incredibly consistent level of incompetence.   And this was just last week.

His ratings are in the toilet, Republicans are set to take a beating in the mid-terms.  So yes, I get it.  Even I feel for the guy. He wants credit for something.  He wants a win. He wants to feel the love.

But please Mr. President, this is a nuclear North Korea.  It’s not a game show.  It’s not reality TV.  North Korea and Kim Jong-un now represent the biggest threat on the world stage.  They are a throw-back to an antiquated world where an entire country is completely, dominated by a third generation child king who has been described as irrational, selfish and childish.  Yes, sir I know.  Yes, he is your kind of guy.

But you are intending to embark on incredibly complex international negotiations which will ultimately require cooperation from China and Russia, and in North Korea, we will be negotiating with a country on which we have very little, good intelligence.

So, please Mr. President listen to you advisers, get Rex Tillerson out of bed, leave Jared the Boy Wonder at home, bring back the recently retired State Department's designated North Korea envoy, Ambassador Joseph Yun to come back in to work for you.  Tell him this time, you will actually listen to his ideas.  Get some help Mr. President. Don’t try to do this on you own.  Even you fiercest critics (I’m not at that level yet, but I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t a personal goal), even your fiercest credits want you to succeed.  I want you to succeed.

This is too big.  This is too critical. Don’t expect to tweet your way to victory.  Take it one game at a time, and for God‘s sake, Sir, put the victory parade completely out of your head for two very important reasons:

1) You might not ever get there, and you know that old expression about “the bigger they are”...

2) It will distort your negotiations terribly. It will cause you to make terrible decisions. It will make you behave in irrational ways…Yes Sir, I know, this all sounds pretty good to you, but, but..

Either way, if the victory parade is your ultimate motivation here, it won’t end well for any of us.  No Sir.   You want to succeed Sir, because it’s good for all Americans, and it’s good for the Rest of the World.   It’s good for America, it’s good for the World. It’s good for America, It’s good for the World.  That’s it Sir, keep repeating it.  You can do it Sir. Keep repeating. It’s good for America.  It’s good for the World.

Keep your eye on the ball Sir.  Stay focused and please know that you are my horse in this horse race and I want you to succeed.

Oh, but don’t think for a second that I will every vote for you Sir, it will be a cold day in hell before that ever happens.  But I do want you to succeed.