President Donald Trump speaks during a dinner with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, in Hanoi. Seated on right are acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and interpreter. Seated on left are North Korean Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol and North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ri Yong Ho and interpreter. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci) Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong-Un in Hanoi was a failure. It failed on substantive grounds; no progress toward denuclearization was achieved. And it was unable to distract us from Michael Cohen’s spellbinding testimony in Washington, D.C.
The summit backfired for a number of reasons including (1) Trump’s dependency on personal relations; (2) inadequate preparations; and (3) over-reliance on leader-to-leader diplomacy. Despite a notable lack of success, Trump persists in believing that friendship with a leader can override a nation’s interests. Perhaps personal or business interests counts for more with Trump than U.S. interests, but this is not true for most leaders. Trump did not allow more time for working-level planning and talked to prepare for the summit. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo disputes a lack of preparation--as demonstrated by interim agreements—which suggests that Trump or Kim ignored their staff’s work. When leaders get too close to the details of diplomacy, there is no one left to resolve the stalemates that always occur.
Kim may have presumed that Trump needed a deal to distract from the Cohen testimony and the investigations dogging him. Kim may have misjudged Trump and asked for too much. Trump, the reality show master, may have realized that he needed a big deal to effectively distract from his problems. The summit was a failure.
The summit backfired for a number of reasons including (1) Trump’s dependency on personal relations; (2) inadequate preparations; and (3) over-reliance on leader-to-leader diplomacy. Despite a notable lack of success, Trump persists in believing that friendship with a leader can override a nation’s interests. Perhaps personal or business interests counts for more with Trump than U.S. interests, but this is not true for most leaders. Trump did not allow more time for working-level planning and talked to prepare for the summit. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo disputes a lack of preparation--as demonstrated by interim agreements—which suggests that Trump or Kim ignored their staff’s work. When leaders get too close to the details of diplomacy, there is no one left to resolve the stalemates that always occur.
Kim may have presumed that Trump needed a deal to distract from the Cohen testimony and the investigations dogging him. Kim may have misjudged Trump and asked for too much. Trump, the reality show master, may have realized that he needed a big deal to effectively distract from his problems. The summit was a failure.
