The Predictable Reaction to the Trump-Kim Summit
In this Tuesday, June 12, 2018, file photo, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump exchanged signed documents at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island in Singapore. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Perhaps the president is onto something.
Upon returning from a potentially game-changing diplomatic summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un this week, President Donald Trump tweeted: “So funny to watch the Fake News, especially NBC and CNN. They are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea. 500 days ago they would have ‘begged’ for this deal — looked like war would break out. Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!”
Trump’s frustration with the way the press covers his administration is shared by millions of Americans who see the stark difference between how mainstream media — saturated with elites and foot soldiers for the Democratic Party — treat liberal politicians and how they treat conservatives.
Take North Korea. Last year, when the rogue regime was rapidly advancing its nuclear arsenal, launching missiles over Japan and threatening to destroy America, President Trump didn’t back down. Instead, he used strong rhetoric, tweeting that “Little Rocket Man” Kim was on a suicide mission and that if he continued to threaten the United States, he would be met with “fire and fury.”
Instead of applauding the president for not cowering to threats of an unthinkable nuclear showdown, mainstream media pundits pounced. They accused the president of being unfit to be commander in chief. They assured us that his provocative tweets and unconventional rhetoric were “unhinged” and would start a war. In essence, the media echo chamber feigned outrage about Trump’s using an unprecedented approach toward handling the belligerent regime despite their knowing full well that the past three administrations’ path of least resistance was an utter failure.
What did Barack Obama’s strategy of “strategic patience” with North Korea yield?
It made the world a more dangerous place as dictator Kim Jong Un rapidly developed nuclear-tipped missiles capable of striking the continental United States — not to mention the possibility of a missile strike against Japan or another U.S. ally in the region. Clearly, a pivot in America’s foreign policy approach toward North Korea was needed to get Kim to denuclearize and bring peace to the Korean Peninsula.
In addition to tough talk, the Trump administration implemented a maximum pressure campaign against the regime, with toothy sanctions and measures to get the North Korean dictator to the negotiating table.
Fait accompli.
So far, Trump’s approach has worked, as Kim has pledged to denuclearize and live peacefully with his South Korean neighbors — potentially ending a decadeslong war between the countries.
But instead of hearing praise from the media and leaders in the Democratic Party, Trump has been subjected to a predictable barrage of negative sound bites inside and outside the Beltway.
It’s no wonder public trust in media is at an all-time low.
With all the disproportionally biased reporting and so-called journalists trafficking political narratives, who can blame the skeptics?
Adriana Cohen is a syndicated columnist with the Boston Herald. Follow her on Twitter @AdrianaCohen16.