Trump’s Plan for the North Korean Summit: Play It by Ear, Who Needs Preparation?
Are you worried about the Trump-thing’s “summit meeting” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un? It’s only nuclear war at stake, after all!
Well, fret not, dear reader! Because we learn today that instead of relying on old-school liberal concepts like planning and preparation, Trump is going to wing it.
Since Trump agreed on a whim to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on March 8, the White House’s summit planning has been unstructured, according to a half-dozen administration officials. Trump himself has driven the preparation almost exclusively on his own, consulting little with his national security team beyond Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has made two visits to Pyongyang to meet with Kim personally. Trump has also not presided personally over a meeting of those senior NSC officials, as a president typically does when making the most important decisions.
Senior officials from both the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations called the absence of a formal interagency process before such a consequential meeting troubling.
So just chill. It’s under control.