Trump Watch 20180613

So, the big summit is over, and a kind of flimsy document was signed.  However, Trump has decided to suspend training drills with South Korea, It turns out that decision was not made with the South Koreans (or the Japanese) being aware of such a decision.  Apparently a unilateral approach to these sorts of things is how Trump thinks such things should be done, and that does fit with his style.  He likes to do what he wants to do, and doesn't seem to like building consensus.  That's a very "businessman" way of doing things, but it comes with repercussions when that model is applied to geopolitics.

There is a sort of 1984 sense of things here though, particularly with Trump's statements.  Apparently this meeting convinced Trump that Kim Jong Un "loves his people," which is quite a turnaround from Trump's comments from his state of the union in January of this year, where he said, "no regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea."

It hasn't gone as far as declaring North Korea an ally, and I'm not naive enough to believe this is the first time an American President has embraced a brutal dictator, but it seems that this embrace is based more on Trump's personal political needs and aspirations rather than the overall best interests of the United States, or even some sort of clear gain (oil regimes come to mind here).  There is hope for some gain here, but there's not even a roadmap, and it seems that scrutiny over this deal is starting to make some cracks in even the Trump base.

Survivor White House watch.

Giuliani still there as Lawyer
John F. Kelly still there as Chief of Staff
Jeff Sessions still there as Attorney General
Sarah Huckabee Sanders still there as Press Secretary
Mike Pompeo - Secretary of State

John Bolton - National Security Advisor

Reports today indicate that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is planning to leave at the end of the year.  Nothing official yet, and there have been reports that there will probably be an exodus after the midterms, but today CBS reported this, although Sarah Sanders put out a tweet to contradict the story.