Did you know? The Patriot Post is funded 100% by its readers. Help us stay front and center in the fight for Liberty and support the 2024 Patriots' Day Campaign.

June 15, 2018

Will We Get Tired of So Much Winning?

It has been a week full of wins for President Donald Trump — at least for those who share Trump’s view of the way the world works, and perhaps even for some who don’t.

It has been a week full of wins for President Donald Trump — at least for those who share Trump’s view of the way the world works, and perhaps even for some who don’t.

Exhibit A is Trump’s summit meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in Singapore. In their self-congratulatory joint statement, they said that North Korea committed to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” and the United States agreed to “provide security guarantees” to North Korea.

Critics said that that’s not airtight language and argued that Kim came out better than the author of The Art of the Deal. He got Trump to call for the cancellation of U.S.-South Korea military exercises in August in return for promises that his regime has repeatedly broken.

Trump was having none of this. In place of the “fire and fury” he threatened not so long ago, he rhapsodized about new condominium developments. And unlike previous U.S. negotiators, his diplomacy was very personal: The president who began his Manhattan real estate career at 25 noted that Kim took power at 27.

Similarly personal was the appeal in the four-minute video created by the National Security Council. Of seven billion people on Earth, only a few can make a difference, the narrator said, adding that history need not be repeated but can evolve. That’s hokey, critics said, but “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams, who famously predicted Trump’s election based on his persuasive powers, said his “first reaction” to the video was that “it might be the best thing that anybody ever did in a negotiation. Period.”

The personal touch, by the way, distinguishes Trump’s outreach to North Korea from former President Barack Obama’s to Iran. The Iranian regime is a group project with many leaders who have ideological and economic interests in continuing hostility toward the United States. Obama’s hope that he could change its outlook clearly went unrealized.

Kim’s regime, in contrast, appears highly personal, one in which the leader can order the sudden deposition and death of an uncle who is a key official. That regime’s behavior, Trump is betting, will change if he can change the mind of one man.

Of course this may not work out. The argument is that nothing else has, and with North Korean nukes now poised to hit the West Coast, it’s worth trying. “The world is safer than it was a week ago,” writes veteran Washington Post foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius, “and Trump is getting some deserved global applause.”

“In expected value terms, this is the biggest triumph of the Trump presidency,” blogs contrarian economist Tyler Cowen. “The negative commentary I am seeing is mostly sour grapes, misplaced frustration, and it is weak in the quality of its argumentation.”

Trump’s almost-affectionate treatment of Kim is something like the relationship — making friends with supposed enemies — that he’s cultivated with rapper Kanye West. In this case, the obvious goal is that he and his party will improve on the 8 percent he won from blacks in 2016.

And make no mistake; it’s his party — something that seemed highly unlikely when he rode down that escalator three years ago this month. Trump has near-unanimous job approval among self-described Republicans, and his clout in Republican primaries was demonstrated in one of his smaller victories this week.

Just three hours before polls closed in South Carolina on Tuesday, Trump tweeted his endorsement of Katie Arrington against 1st District incumbent and frequent Trump critic Rep. Mark Sanford. The challenger got 50.6 percent and avoided a runoff by just 366 votes. Did the tweet make the difference?

Another apparent Trump victory came without much notice, as House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy blocked the efforts of some moderate Republicans and all House Democrats to get the 218 signatures required to trigger a roll call on a bill that would legalize the so-called “Dreamers,” young immigrants in the country illegally who were brought here as children, without strengthening immigration law enforcement.

That was not the deal Trump had in mind when he promised to sign a bill legalizing recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and strengthening enforcement. Ryan and McCarthy promised roll-call votes next week on such a bill sponsored by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte and another as yet to be drafted by Republican moderates.

These developments may not turn out to be Trump wins. The immigration bills probably won’t pass and will fall short of Trump goals; Trump endorsement tweets may produce unelectable nominees; negotiations with North Korea may go nowhere. But maybe, as Trump has predicted, we’re going to get tired of so much winning.

COPYRIGHT 2018 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.