President Donald Trump had convinced himself earlier this month that he was en route to a Nobel Peace Prize for bringing peace to the Korean peninsula. That mirage has already dissipated.
On Thursday, the president announced he was canceling his planned June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore, blaming the North Korean leader's "tremendous anger." What Trump didn't mention was that Kim's wrath was provoked by statements from Vice President Mike Pence, from the president's national security adviser John Bolton, and from the president himself that suggested America wanted regime change in Pyongyang.
Apparently Trump thought the way to get Kim to give up all his nukes was to threaten to destroy him. Any North Korea expert could have warned the president that was a losing strategy. Kim wants to keep his nukes precisely to prevent any threat to his regime. But Trump is famously resistant to briefings, insisting he knows best.
What's so astonishing about this denouement is that the White House has squandered a pressure campaign that was paying some dividends.
But Trump's dysfunctional White House team began mouthing off in ways guaranteed to sabotage the summit.
Now Trump has put himself in a pickle. South Korea and Beijing--both eager for talks that dissipate tension on the Korean peninsula--are likely to blame the White House if this opening closes. This may weaken pressure on Pyongyang.
But the more the White House pushes the Libya example the less likely any future nuclear negotiations with North Korea. The threats and bluster that Trump used for real estate deals in Atlantic City don't work with Pyongyang.
------------v------------
Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Editorial on 05/26/2018