Trump's North Korea Deal Is an Utter Failure

Remember a couple of months ago, when Donald Trump returned victorious from Singapore, claiming that he saved the world from nuclear annihilation by getting North Korea to denuclearize? Well, that's not happening.

The other day he told his secretary of state to cancel his trip to North Korea. North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper responded with this:

Such acts prove that the U.S. is hatching a criminal plot to unleash a war against the DPRK and commit a crime which deserves merciless divine punishment in case the U.S. fails in the scenario of the DPRK’s unjust and brigandish denuclearisation first.

We cannot but take a serious note of the double-dealing attitudes of the U.S. as it is busy staging secret drills involving man-killing special units while having a dialogue with a smile on its face.

And guess who Trump blames for the failure of these talks? You guessed it: China.

On Friday, President Donald Trump canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea, citing the lack of progress on denuclearization and blaming China. "Because of our much tougher Trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization," Trump tweeted. 

Trump is right. His trade war with China is undermining diplomatic efforts to denuclearize North Korea, as well as other US objectives. 

Trump promised Americans that a trade war would be "good and easy to win." While the trade war may be hurting China more than the US, tariffs are also taking a toll on American soybean farmers and businesses that rely on Chinese imports. Experts expect American consumers to be hit hard if the reciprocal tariffs keep escalating.

Think about it: North Korea has been China's loyal ally and proxy for almost seven decades. Trump has spent the last two years alternating between belligerent racist screeds against the Chinese, and insincere, phony fawning praise of their autocratic communist leaders.

Trump might as well have tweeted, "I kicked China in the nuts and now they won't help me take down North Korea! Waah!"

Why would China help Trump?

This is a genius in the art of the deal? This is why Trump has been divorced twice and his current wife doesn't even want him to touch her in public: he has no idea how to motivate human beings with anything other than threats and phony praise.

Trump doesn't get it. China is a dictatorship with an iron-fisted control over its population. Its leaders control all social media and ruthlessly censor and imprison dissenters. Its leaders have direct control over all Chinese industry and economy. They have life-time appointments and never have to stand for election.

Despite years of trying to undermine the free press, wanna-be dictator Trump cannot muzzle his critics. Americans disapprove of his leadership two to one, in large part because he conspired with a foreign power to steal an election in direct contravention of the Constitution. His congressional allies are facing a crushing defeat in the polls in several weeks, and Trump himself may well be impeached when the depths of his treason and perfidy are documented.

The Chinese leaders will still be there long after Trump and his cronies are long gone. He cannot intimidate them with mafioso-style tactics from the New York real estate market.

In the meantime, the Chinese can weather any trade war Trump tries to throw at them, especially considering how Trump has alienated all our other allies: Europe, Asia, South America, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. Even Putin is mad at Trump because he is powerless to stop sanctions against Russia, precisely because he conspired with them.

Trump has unilaterally given up any leverage he might have had over the Chinese with his blundering bravado.

Trump's meager popularity and hold on power hinge completely on keeping the small percentage of rabid racists and misogynists in the Republican Party entertained. The fact is, Trump is only hanging on by a thread, and not just because his criminality is coming to light. His incoherent policies are already hurting his base more than they are hurting China, who can just sell their goods to the rest of the world.

A serious economic downturn -- the inevitable outcome of his foolish trade war -- will kill his presidency. One slip of the tongue -- say, Trump admitting on tape that he thinks his voters are fucking morons who are so stupid they would support him even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue -- will alienate his base and cut the legs off his presidency.

Then Republicans in congress, most of whom Trump has insulted or embarrassed in one way or another, will turn on him "like a bitch," as he would phrase it.

Americans love to root for the little guy, which Trump somehow -- against all reason -- managed to cast himself as in the reality show that was the 2016 election.

The corollary is that Americans love to kick bullies when they're down. And Trump is the biggest bully this country has ever seen. When he falls, the people supporting him now will be the ones denouncing him the loudest.