Trading Our Allies For Condos In North Korea

I just have time for a quick recap of the last 36 hours of the destruction of American alliances around the globe. First Trump blew up the G7 summit, determined to take a pound of flesh out of our closest neighbor and staunchest ally, Canada, for no apparent reason. Along the way he once again threatened to undermine NATO and demanded that Russian be re-admitted to the G7 with no penalty for its invasion of Ukraine, interference in the UK and US electoral process, and the murders of Putin opponents inside both the UK and the US.

That done, Trump jets off to Singapore to give respectability and credibility to Kim Jong-un. There he gets nothing but an empty promise in return for promising to suspend military exercises with South Korea and hinting at his desire to withdraw US forces entirely, essentially abandoning both South Korea and Japan.

Of course, he did float the idea of developing North Koreas coastal properties, presumably under the auspices of the Trump Organization, even bringing along a cheesy promo video for the occasion. Basically, Trump is willing to trade the security of our Asian allies for Trump Tower Chongjin.

As Yglesias tweeted the other day, “If the goal of the negotiation is to make policy concessions to North Korea in exchange for bribes to Trump and his family, then it makes a lot of sense to minimize the number of people in the room.” It is not a stretch to envision that is exactly what happened during Trump’s one-on-one with Kim.

Trump’s foreign policy may seem crazy and counterproductive but it begins to actually make sense when you think of his actions as just and extension of the racketeering enterprise he has been running his entire life.