So, at this stage of the North Korean agreement, North Korea's state-run newspaper (Rodong Sinmun) has published a statement/article explaining that North Koreas wants peace treaty talks before detailing a list of its nuclear weapons. Apparently it appears that North Korea wants to have a peace treaty with the United States in place prior to disclosing information about its weapons. Honestly, on the face of it, it seems pretty reasonable for a state that is at war with another state to want a peace treaty before revealing its military secrets. At a political level, at least for the United States, that sort of first step is a pretty big one, since it goes a long way towards removing any military option for denuclearizing North Korea. Of course, a detailed list of their nuclear capabilities would go a long way towards making a first strike option more viable for the United States if a hot war began.
Trump hasn't admitted to the difficulties going on with North Korea, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo continues to say that there is "progress," (whatever that means), but it leaves Trump himself in something of a dilemma, and he has been pretty silent about any problems.
Basically, if Trump admits that his negotiations were a failure, he may have trouble with his base, who apparently either don't see other media reports about the situation, or if they do, they consider such reports "fake news." Democrats could use the issue to pan him, and it would probably wind up causing at least some Republican politicians to criticize him over the failure.
I expect that even if Trump were to admit to the failure, some of his true believers would come up with some sort of excuse for the statement, but the first step will ave to be Trump admitting that it did fail. That will probably happen when North Korea takes some new high profile belligerent action (firing another missile or some such), but until then I expect Trump to keep quiet.
- Trump Charity lawsuit by New York Attorney General
- FBI investigation (it keeps being called a Russian Collusion investigation, but I'm pretty sure more to it than that at this point)
- North Korea
- The Space Force
- The Border Wall
- Alien Children Detention/family separation
- Presidential Pardons
- Civil War Monuments
- Muslim Travel Ban
- China Tariffs/Trade
- Canada-G7 Tariffs/Trade
- NAFTA
- Puerto Rico response
- Military Parade in Washington
- World Trade Organization
- Covfefe Syndrome
- NATO
- Russia/Putin relationship
Giuliani still there as Lawyer
John F. Kelly still there as Chief of Staff - 6-29-2018 Trump says "Things Happen."
Jeff Sessions still there as Attorney General
Sarah Huckabee Sanders still there as Press Secretary, rumors continue to be denied.
Mike Pompeo - Secretary of State
John Bolton - National Security Advisor
Marc Short - White House Legislative Affairs Director - no denial of plans regarding his departure prior to the 2018 midterms.
Kirstjen Nielsen - Homeland Security Secretary
Joe Hagin - White House deputy Chief of Staff is resigning.- reported June 19th
Scott Pruitt - EPA Director - Resigned 7-5-2018
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