Like other presidents before him, Donald Trump has failed failed to negotiate a deal to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. But unlike other presidents, he has done it in a particularly Trumpian fashion: through his own ignorance and screw-ups, all while proclaiming that he was about to achieve a monumental victory, one so remarkable that a Nobel Peace Prize https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/from-fire-and-fury-to-peace-prize-some-talk-of-a-nobel-award-for-trump-on-north-korea/2018/04/30/2b7f2182-4c8a-11e8-84a0-458a1aa9ac0a_story.html (would soon) be bestowed upon him.
Yet now we learn that not only didn’t Trump get the denuclearization he sought, he subjected the United States to https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korea-issued-2-million-bill-for-comatose-otto-warmbiers-care/2019/04/25/0e8022a0-66ad-11e9-a698-2a8f808c9cfb_story.html (this humiliation):
North Korea issued a $2 million bill for the hospital care of comatose American Otto Warmbier, insisting that a U.S. official sign a pledge to pay it before being allowed to fly the University of Virginia student from Pyongyang in 2017.
The presentation of the invoice — not previously disclosed by U.S. or North Korean officials — was extraordinarily brazen even for a regime known for its aggressive tactics.
But the main U.S. envoy sent to retrieve Warmbier signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions passed down from President Trump, according to two people familiar with the situation. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The bill went to the Treasury Department, where it remained — unpaid — throughout 2017, the people said. However, it is unclear whether the Trump administration later paid the bill, or whether it came up during preparations for Trump’s two summits with Kim Jong Un.
The presentation of the invoice — not previously disclosed by U.S. or North Korean officials — was extraordinarily brazen even for a regime known for its aggressive tactics.
But the main U.S. envoy sent to retrieve Warmbier signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions passed down from President Trump, according to two people familiar with the situation. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The bill went to the Treasury Department, where it remained — unpaid — throughout 2017, the people said. However, it is unclear whether the Trump administration later paid the bill, or whether it came up during preparations for Trump’s two summits with Kim Jong Un.
Imagine for a moment the paroxysms of rage Fox News and the rest of the conservative media would be in right now if this had happened under Barack Obama. ...
Trump has never grappled with the fundamental fact underlying this whole issue: Kim believes, and not without reason, that his nuclear weapons are what keeps him in power and alive. If he didn't have them, he could suffer the same fate as Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi, both deposed and killed. If there's something we can offer him that will be enticing enough to risk the fate of his regime in exchange for getting it, we haven't found it yet.
So while other presidents couldn’t solve that conundrum, they weren’t dumb enough to think that the solution lay in groveling at the feet of the North Korean leader and telling everyone a deal was around the corner. When his presidency is over, this will be the story of Trump’s dealings with North Korea: an ignorant, impulsive president making grandiose claims about what he could accomplish, then making a fool out of himself. With absolutely nothing to show for it.
