While the entire Washington press corps was hyperventilating Thursday over President Trump’s efforts to save American steel jobs, National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster was discussing a dramatic development with his South Korean counterpart.

The South Koreans were delivering a message from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. North Korea had dropped its demand that the U.S. suspend joint military maneuvers with South Korea. It also pledged to suspend its missile and nuclear tests for now. In exchange, Kim wanted to meet with President Trump.

Shortly after 7:00 PM, the South Korean delegation briefed U.S. media on the White House lawn. South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong stated that President Trump agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by May “to achieve permanent denuclearization.”

Of course, you can’t trust the North Koreans. They have a long history of using negotiations to buy time, and they have broken every deal they ever signed.

But Donald Trump is no patsy, and I have no fears about the negotiations. I trust that, like Ronald Reagan at Reykjavik, Donald Trump won’t hesitate to walk away from a bad deal. Now, if this were Barack Obama…

The Left’s Reaction

Meanwhile, the reaction of Trump-haters is very revealing. With few exceptions, the same talking heads and the same Obama officials who have been warning that Trump’s provocative rhetoric would cause a war now appear to be even more fearful that Trump’s strength might actually result in peace.

I will concede that this is a learning process for liberals, if they ever learn. For decades, our elites have told us that America’s best days are over. That we can’t win wars. That we need to be sensitive to the rest of the world and apologize for our past.

We watched in horror as Obama ignored his own red lines against the use of chemical weapons in Syria, did nothing as ISIS chopped off heads and as he paid off Iran.

Now we have a president who reminds us every day that we are the strongest nation on earth, and he is operating from a position of strength. ISIS has lost its caliphate. And now the Hermit Kingdom is begging for talks.

This is what it looks like when you have a president who wants to make America great again.

Nobel Peace Prize?

Do you recall when Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize barely nine months into his administration? It turns out some folks had a few regrets about that.

Unfortunately, I feel completely confident in saying that should Trump succeed in achieving the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, he will never get the Nobel Peace Prize.

Man of Steel

As the White House was putting the finishing touches on what might be a major foreign policy breakthrough, President Trump was in the Oval Office with a dozen American steel workers and top administration officials announcing new tariffs on steel and aluminum. His proposal was modified to take into account the concerns of allies in Congress and allies overseas.

But what was so striking to me was to see the reaction of these steelworkers. These working men and women have been the backbone of the Democrat Party since FDR. Yet they were visibly moved standing in the White House and watching a president who cared about them.

One talked about his father who worked in a steel mill for 40 years and how that job provided for his family. Today, the plant is operating well below half capacity with just a fraction of the employees it used to have.

In response to stories like this, GOP elites have often lectured about the wonders of free trade. But the loss of more than 55,000 manufacturing plants since George H.W. Bush is more than a statistic. While Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington, DC, have prospered, many communities in the industrial Midwest have been gutted.

All week I have been hearing, “Every economist agrees that tariffs are a bad idea.” Well, every American who used to build things agrees that losing your job and watching your family and community break up is bad. Watching your children losing their dreams is not just textbook terrible but real-life terrible.

In spite of all the hand-wringing by our elites, the American people overwhelmingly agree with President Trump when it comes to fixing trade deals and protecting our interests.

If Republican leaders like my friend Paul Ryan want history to record that they were the ones who led the GOP to becoming the permanent governing party, I suggest they spend more time with those steelworkers.

They were the ones who put Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin into the Republican/Trump column and spared us from Hillary Rodham Clinton. MSNBC host Chris Matthews gets it.

For business leaders concerned about higher costs, please don’t miss the forest for the trees. You just got a massive tax cut courtesy of this president. He is also massively rolling back regulations. Lower taxes, less regulation and smart trade policies will make America great again.

By the way, our “dreaded, know-nothing, protectionist” president just happens to be presiding over an economy that created 313,000 new jobs last month and a growing workforce.

Farrakhan Fallout

The Left’s Louis Farrakhan problem isn’t going away anytime soon. I am pleased to report that three House Democrats have been forced to publicly rebuke Farrakhan by name.

The Daily Caller reports that, unfortunately, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) was filmed on stage at a Nation of Islam event with Louis Farrakhan in 2011. Clyburn is the third highest-ranking House Democrat, behind Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer. And so far, Clyburn is not apologizing.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post Fact Checker slammed DNC Deputy Chairman Keith Ellison with its worst rating of Four Pinocchios for Ellison’s continued lies about his relationship with Farrakhan.

And a Planned Parenthood affiliate is “aborting” its relationship with Women’s March co-president Tamika Mallory. The group was scheduled to have Mallory address an April event, but her speech has been canceled.