Did Kim, a foreign dictator, just accomplish what millions of Americans want -- pull the plug on the Trump presidency?
Trump tried to justify his botched summit with Kim in Hanoi with the old canard, "Sometimes the best deal is no deal."
Trump`s game is to show America how rough and tough he is on the mean old nasty communists. Russia, China, North Korea: recently, he has been busy picking fights with them. His purpose is to soften up the Mueller investigation of his Russian ties, as well as pull the teeth out of other investigations of shady relationships.
Kim just exposed Trump´s game for what it is: a game. Should Trump survive the onslaught of bad news and bad maneuvers, he will instantly and literally get back to business as usual.
Kim attacked and wounded Trump in the most significant way possible...
In boxing, the goal is to win the match by points or a knock-out. However, if you really want to show mastery, you fight the other man´s fight and beat him at it.
Trump´s fight, everybody thought, is deal-making. Kim professed to be optimistic, if not buoyant, about the prospects for a brave new world, a big new deal coming out of the Hanoi summit. Nothing of the sort happened. Zero, nul, ziltch, nada, rien. Kim´s acting made the failure more dramatic by heightening the contradiction between expectations and reality.
Acting, because Kim offered absolutely nothing new at the summit. He knew perfectly well what was going to happen.
Trump went home empty-handed, just when an earth-shaking statesman-like win could possibly have saved him.
Kim beat Trump at his own game. Now, that´s mastery.
To boot, all Kim had to do was nothing at all.
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Trump just doesn´t get it. Neither does anybody around him.
What game will we play? is the first item on the agenda for people who understand power.
Any game consists of definitions of the situation. Pass Go; collect $200. 9 innings. 6 points for a touchdown.
He who controls the definitions makes the rules.
He who makes the rules has the power and wins the game.
Trump was beaten on a world stage at his own game: deal-making. On top of every other criticism made of him -- he´s a liar, racist, Russian asset, crook -- you can now add incompetent.
As mentioned, Trump´s specific game was to appear to be tough on Russia, etc. Kim´s game was to get rid of Trump. Trump has served Kim´s purpose: acquire direct talks with a U.S. president without giving up his nuclear arsenal, something the U.S. had always insisted on.
Kim clearly has Pence figured as a do-nothing guy; with him as president, Kim can continue to quietly build his nuclear arsenal while winning over U.N. countries one-by-one to scuttle the economic sanctions.
The stage is set. The warning bells have sounded, the lights are dimming. The doors are closing, locking.
The timing is perfect. Trump senses the new wound dealt him by Kim could be mortal. That is why he just spent two hours (March 2) at the Conservative Political Action Conference flailing about, lashing out at Robert Mueller et al -- "bullshit."
The opera isn´t over until the fat guy cusses.
After almost two years, Mueller should be primed and ready to pounce. Is he?
Or is Mueller just another fat, dumb and happy D.C. bureaucrat? The fact the Democratic leadership in the House a few days ago launched a full-bore investigation of Trump is not a positive indicator of where the Mueller investigation is headed:
An anti-climax without a climax preceding it.