Trump salutes a North Korean general

[Virginiá]

My issue is more that Trump is schmoozing up to these terrible people, elevating them on the international stage, and giving concessions for pretty much nothing. I'm not so much a partisan that I'd hope for Donald to fail purely so he can't get a win, I think this situation demands a real solution (and asap), but Trump is a bad negotiator. His image as a master deal maker is literally an act. His actual history shows a never-ending series of bad deals, investments and self-inflicted wounds.

Point being that if Trump was actually successful in this and got NK to denuclearize, then I couldn't care less about this, but given that such an outcome is highly unlikely, it just serves to remind me of how much Trump is screwing things up in return for nothing.

[7,052,770]

I guess I'm in the minority on this one, but even if it was outside protocol this seems like a nothingburger to me.  There are plenty of real, substantive things to disapprove of Trump for.

Yeah, I don't particularly care about this personally. I just find it hysterical that Republicans would have completely melted down had Obama done this, but since Trump did it it's fine.

[JGibson]

His saluting of a general from a nation who is an enemy of the USA that kills and tortures its own people was a disrespectful and treasonous act against America. This is a million times more offensive than the Obama latte salute ever was.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

His saluting of a general from a nation who is an enemy of the USA that kills and tortures its own people was a disrespectful and treasonous act against America. This is a million times more offensive than the Obama latte salute ever was.

Treasonous? That's too far. A treason would be Trump reaching for his pocket to show that guy his nuclear codes... which I can totally see him doing out of being such an imbecile.

[Brittain33]

I hated it when Republicans pretended to care when Obama did things like this, and I don't really care that Trump did.

[JA]

Last year Liberals were (rightfully) decrying Trump's adversarial and childish approach to North Korea. This year, now that some progress might be achieved that could lead to greater peace and stability in East Asia, Liberals are falling over themselves to attack any deal Trump might strike, how friendly he is with the North Koreans, etc... You guys are so damn lost in your anti-Trumpism that it seems to be the only prism through which you can view the world. Hell, Senate Democratic leadership is making all these demands before they'd sign any treaty with North Korea, acting as the hawkish, partisan, and ignorant Republicans did in regards to Obama's deal with Iran.

Trump is a buffoon; he is not the ideal person to be handling this situation, but he is our President, and he is the only American who can de-escalate the situation in that part of the world. Any progress is good progress, and Trump displaying respect for a country with which we've been excessively hostile for too long is a good thing. So, please, shut up you gaggle of hypocrites.

[Crumpets]

Last year Liberals were (rightfully) decrying Trump's adversarial and childish approach to North Korea. This year, now that some progress might be achieved that could lead to greater peace and stability in East Asia, Liberals are falling over themselves to attack any deal Trump might strike, how friendly he is with the North Koreans, etc... You guys are so damn lost in your anti-Trumpism that it seems to be the only prism through which you can view the world. Hell, Senate Democratic leadership is making all these demands before they'd sign any treaty with North Korea, acting as the hawkish, partisan, and ignorant Republicans did in regards to Obama's deal with Iran.

Trump is a buffoon; he is not the ideal person to be handling this situation, but he is our President, and he is the only American who can de-escalate the situation in that part of the world. Any progress is good progress, and Trump displaying respect for a country with which we've been excessively hostile for too long is a good thing. So, please, shut up you gaggle of hypocrites.

I'd like to see you tell a North Korean family in a labor camp that the U.S. agreeing to stop military exercises with the South with no substantive concessions from the North constitutes "progress."

[JA]

Last year Liberals were (rightfully) decrying Trump's adversarial and childish approach to North Korea. This year, now that some progress might be achieved that could lead to greater peace and stability in East Asia, Liberals are falling over themselves to attack any deal Trump might strike, how friendly he is with the North Koreans, etc... You guys are so damn lost in your anti-Trumpism that it seems to be the only prism through which you can view the world. Hell, Senate Democratic leadership is making all these demands before they'd sign any treaty with North Korea, acting as the hawkish, partisan, and ignorant Republicans did in regards to Obama's deal with Iran.

Trump is a buffoon; he is not the ideal person to be handling this situation, but he is our President, and he is the only American who can de-escalate the situation in that part of the world. Any progress is good progress, and Trump displaying respect for a country with which we've been excessively hostile for too long is a good thing. So, please, shut up you gaggle of hypocrites.

I'd like to see you tell a North Korean family in a labor camp that the U.S. agreeing to stop military exercises with the South constitutes "progress."

It does constitute progress. How on earth does continued military exercises with South Korea help the people trapped in North Korean labor camps? What have the exercises done to ease their suffering or help their release so far?

[Dr. MB]

Don't care. Also don't care if Obama bows to the king of Saudi Arabia or whoever. Out-of-place, yeah, but it shouldn't be a scandal, just like how the similar Obama "scandals" were incredibly overblown.

Of course there's hypocrisy here. Just imagine if Clinton were president and did the same thing.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I don't really care either. At this point I'm just glad that Trump didn't give the guy a wet-willy or something.

[ProudModerate2]

Last year Liberals were (rightfully) decrying Trump's adversarial and childish approach to North Korea. This year, now that some progress might be achieved that could lead to greater peace and stability in East Asia, Liberals are falling over themselves to attack any deal Trump might strike, how friendly he is with the North Koreans, etc... You guys are so damn lost in your anti-Trumpism that it seems to be the only prism through which you can view the world. Hell, Senate Democratic leadership is making all these demands before they'd sign any treaty with North Korea, acting as the hawkish, partisan, and ignorant Republicans did in regards to Obama's deal with Iran.

Trump is a buffoon; he is not the ideal person to be handling this situation, but he is our President, and he is the only American who can de-escalate the situation in that part of the world. Any progress is good progress, and Trump displaying respect for a country with which we've been excessively hostile for too long is a good thing. So, please, shut up you gaggle of hypocrites.

I'd like to see you tell a North Korean family in a labor camp that the U.S. agreeing to stop military exercises with the South constitutes "progress."

It does constitute progress. How on earth does continued military exercises with South Korea help the people trapped in North Korean labor camps? What have the exercises done to ease their suffering or help their release so far?

The military exercises (to cease) should be used as leverage to get NK to dismantle their long-range missile capability and nuke program. Our military exercises with SK is a big-irritation to them, and we shouldn't just give it away for nothing.

Besides, all we got from the NK since this bogus summit, was them committing malicious cyber activity on our computer systems. This news was released today, by DHS and FBI analysts ...

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Last year Liberals were (rightfully) decrying Trump's adversarial and childish approach to North Korea. This year, now that some progress might be achieved that could lead to greater peace and stability in East Asia, Liberals are falling over themselves to attack any deal Trump might strike, how friendly he is with the North Koreans, etc... You guys are so damn lost in your anti-Trumpism that it seems to be the only prism through which you can view the world. Hell, Senate Democratic leadership is making all these demands before they'd sign any treaty with North Korea, acting as the hawkish, partisan, and ignorant Republicans did in regards to Obama's deal with Iran.

I mean, the left was right to criticize Trump's approach to North Korea last year. It was colossally irresponsible and dangerous to antagonize the regime the way he did. Also if your concern is for starving NK people in labor camps then wouldn't you be opposed to the full pressure sanctions campaign Trump ran?

The second part about Democratic leadership sounds like a false equivalence to me. Republicans literally signed an open letter to the Iranian government telling them not to trust the Obama administration because he would be leaving office. This was signed by over 80% of their caucus. When the Senate Democrats do something like that then I will invite comparison.

Also re: the SK war games... overall deescalation is good but Trump missed an opportunity to draw out a real concession, and failed. That is what most Democrats are upset about. Although I will break from most other Democrats and say I respect the administration for getting this far in negotiations; the consensus last month was that placing unilateral denuclearization as a precondition for any agreement was a horrible idea that would doom any negotiation. The fact that the summit happened at all is a very positive development, but I think Pompeo deserves a lot more credit than Trump.

[Person Man]

Last year Liberals were (rightfully) decrying Trump's adversarial and childish approach to North Korea. This year, now that some progress might be achieved that could lead to greater peace and stability in East Asia, Liberals are falling over themselves to attack any deal Trump might strike, how friendly he is with the North Koreans, etc... You guys are so damn lost in your anti-Trumpism that it seems to be the only prism through which you can view the world. Hell, Senate Democratic leadership is making all these demands before they'd sign any treaty with North Korea, acting as the hawkish, partisan, and ignorant Republicans did in regards to Obama's deal with Iran.

I mean, the left was right to criticize Trump's approach to North Korea last year. It was colossally irresponsible and dangerous to antagonize the regime the way he did. Also if your concern is for starving NK people in labor camps then wouldn't you be opposed to the full pressure sanctions campaign Trump ran?

The second part about Democratic leadership sounds like a false equivalence to me. Republicans literally signed an open letter to the Iranian government telling them not to trust the Obama administration because he would be leaving office. This was signed by over 80% of their caucus. When the Senate Democrats do something like that then I will invite comparison.

Also re: the SK war games... overall deescalation is good but Trump missed an opportunity to draw out a real concession, and failed. That is what most Democrats are upset about. Although I will break from most other Democrats and say I respect the administration for getting this far in negotiations; the consensus last month was that placing unilateral denuclearization as a precondition for any agreement was a horrible idea that would doom any negotiation. The fact that the summit happened at all is a very positive development, but I think Pompeo deserves a lot more credit than Trump.

Like I have been telling everyone, Trump's foreign policy makes sense if his true objective is to disentangle the US from its costly commitments to propping up allies, trading with developing countries, and containing hostiles. That's a double edged sword because all of our allies/customers need weapons,  poor people need jobs and cheap goods, and who knows what is going to happen if we leave Iran and NK to Russia.

[DINGO Joe]

I have a theory that one of those "Freaky Friday" things happened at the summit and since Kim Jung and the Donald are basically identical personalities, no one can tell the difference.

They're both probably happier now.  Kim Jung is out of North Korea and Trump now has big hands and gets to kill people.

[MillennialModerate]

If Obama had done this, the millions of Nasos across America would still be seething about it decades later.

But since it was Trump, nbd.

So ing true it’s sickening

[junior chįmp]

Last year Liberals were (rightfully) decrying Trump's adversarial and childish approach to North Korea. This year, now that some progress might be achieved that could lead to greater peace and stability in East Asia, Liberals are falling over themselves to attack any deal Trump might strike, how friendly he is with the North Koreans, etc... You guys are so damn lost in your anti-Trumpism that it seems to be the only prism through which you can view the world. Hell, Senate Democratic leadership is making all these demands before they'd sign any treaty with North Korea, acting as the hawkish, partisan, and ignorant Republicans did in regards to Obama's deal with Iran.

I mean, the left was right to criticize Trump's approach to North Korea last year. It was colossally irresponsible and dangerous to antagonize the regime the way he did. Also if your concern is for starving NK people in labor camps then wouldn't you be opposed to the full pressure sanctions campaign Trump ran?

The second part about Democratic leadership sounds like a false equivalence to me. Republicans literally signed an open letter to the Iranian government telling them not to trust the Obama administration because he would be leaving office. This was signed by over 80% of their caucus. When the Senate Democrats do something like that then I will invite comparison.

Also re: the SK war games... overall deescalation is good but Trump missed an opportunity to draw out a real concession, and failed. That is what most Democrats are upset about. Although I will break from most other Democrats and say I respect the administration for getting this far in negotiations; the consensus last month was that placing unilateral denuclearization as a precondition for any agreement was a horrible idea that would doom any negotiation. The fact that the summit happened at all is a very positive development, but I think Pompeo deserves a lot more credit than Trump.

Like I have been telling everyone, Trump's foreign policy makes sense if his true objective is to disentangle the US from its costly commitments to propping up allies, trading with developing countries, and containing hostiles. That's a double edged sword because all of our allies/customers need weapons,  poor people need jobs and cheap goods, and who knows what is going to happen if we leave Iran and NK to Russia.

Trump's foreign policy is this: Whoever offers me pay for play moves ahead of the line. Thats why Trump doesnt mess with Saudi Arabia despite campaigning against them.

Any country that cuts Trump a check gets favorable treatment. Trump isnt disentageling 80 years of American foreign policy becase he cares....hes just doing it because countries like Russia are dangeling a Trump Tower Moscow over his head.

Of course dimwitted Trump supporters will all claim that its 4D chess