Blame Clinton & Carter for North Korea All You Want, But Trump is Handling This Badly

In light of the revelation from a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report indicating that North Korea has developed miniaturized nuclear warheads, it is fair to revisit the lack of wisdom in former President Clinton's 1994 nuclear agreement with the regime (with a significant assist from former President Jimmy Carter) as has been done at NRO by the likes of Jim Geraghty and Jonah Goldberg.

But it doesn't change the fact that this is now Donald Trump's problem and he isn't handling it very well. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence to hear Trump say, “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” But Geraghty has an answer for that too:

The problem is that even if Donald Trump was the most level-headed, even-tempered guy on the planet . . . North Korea is still making miniaturized nuclear warheads, is testing ballistic missiles that can hit the United States, is threatening to use them against the U.S., and another test is coming soon. In other words, for all of his flaws – and he has many – Trump isn’t really the problem here.

 

Actually, he's a very big part of the problem. If Trump was "the most level-headed, even tempered guy on the planet" would his Secretary of State be contradicting him? While defending Trump's rhetoric, Rex Tillerson also made a point of stating, "Nothing that I have seen and nothing that I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours. Americans should sleep well at night."

 

The gap between "fire and fury like the world has never seen" and "Americans should sleep well at night" is greater than that between Washington, D.C. and Pyonyang. 

 

And this isn't the first time Trump has been contradicted by a senior administration official where it concerns the Korean Peninsula. Given North Korea's aggression, a level-headed, even-tempered President would have brought assurances to South Korea. Instead, this past April, Trump demanded South Korea pay for the THAAD anti-missile defense system. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster had to do damage control and provide assurances the U.S. would pay for the THAAD system after all.

 

The buck ought to stop with the President of the United States. But how can it when the President is so unstable that his Secretary of State and his National Security Adviser have to tell our allies to essentially disregard what he says?

 

While Presidents Clinton & Carter erred where it concerns North Korea, but President Trump is proving unfit for command.