Following his summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in Singapore, President Trump told George Stephanopoulos he trusts Kim and "believes" and "thinks" that Kim trusts him:
He trusts me, I believe. I really do. I mean, he said openly, and he said it to a couple of reporters that were with him that he knows that no other president ever could have done this. He knows who we had in front of me. He said no other president could have done this. I think he trusts me, and I trust him.
This is hardly reassuring.
Trump says he trusts Kim without qualification or reservation but doesn't seem so sure if Kim trusts him. Not that one could blame Kim. President Reagan had a wonderful relationship with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Their relationship was one for the ages. But Reagan was of the adage, "Trust, but verify." With Trump, verification has gone out the window.
As to Trump's assertion that Kim told reporters no other President could have done what he did. It could be one of Trump's white lies just like when he claimed the President of the Boy Scouts told him he had made the best speech he ever heard. Something the President of the Boy Scouts not only denied, but actually apologized for Trump's excessively partisan remarks in a non-partisan setting.
But in this instance it would not surprise if Trump was telling the truth about Kim's remarks. In which case, if you read in between the lines, Kim is telling reporters he thinks Trump is a sucker. After all, Kim and his father and grandfather had long wanted this day to happen and no American President was going to let that come to pass so long as their regime persisted with their behavior.
Given North Korea's longstanding defiance of the United States with regard to nuclear proliferation, human rights abuses and a litany of other things why would Trump think things would be any different under his watch? I can think of one reason. Trump's monumental ego. Anyone who boasts he knows more about ISIS than the generals despite no military experience suffers from delusions of grandeur.
A monumental ego is also an impediment to sober judgment. Trump actually suggested Kim was "honorable". Trump told Stephanopoulos, "I've done a lot of deals with a lot of people, and sometimes the people that you most distrust turn out to be the most honorable ones and the people that you do trust, they are not the honorable ones."
There is nothing honorable about Kim Jong-un.
There is nothing honorable about a man who those who disagree with him into labor camps.
There is nothing honorable about a man who rules over a land where his people starve.
There is nothing honorable about a man who runs a country as a prison where no one is allowed to leave and is isolated from the rest of the world.
Trump's remark about people who are not honorable, of course, are a not so veiled swipe at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following his declaration that Canada would slap retaliatory tariffs on the United States in response to Trump's tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum at the close of the G-7 Summit in Quebec City last weekend. There is much to criticize about Trudeau's disposition and the manner in which he governs. But Trudeau is no Kim. That Trump would trust Kim at face value while deriding a long standing ally demonstrates a lack of emotional stability and predilection towards totalitarianism.
We can look forward to Kim stringing Trump along with promises he will not keep while Trump boasts despite no meaningful resutls. As I have argued previously, Kim is a very young man who President for Life while Trump will leave office in either 2021 or 2025 (God willing). Trump's engagement of Kim will make things more difficult for his successor to delegitimize him. Particular one who has nuclear weapons, threatens to use them and is willing to test him at the drop of a hat.
I would ask God to help us, but He told us long ago that we are on our own.
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