Cheery Trump Tweets Contrast With North Korea’s Steady Nuke Production

US President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un walk from lunch at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. - Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un became on June 12, the first sitting ... US President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un walk from lunch at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. - Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un became on June 12, the first sitting US and North Korean leaders to meet, shake hands and negotiate to end a decades-old nuclear stand-off. (Photo by Susan Walsh / POOL / AFP) (Photo credit should read SUSAN WALSH/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

North Korea is working to conceal its nuclear weapons, taking measures like building structures to conceal warhead storage facilities and moving the weapons from place to place to make them harder to track, according to a Monday NBC News report.

U.S. intelligence reportedly estimates that the North Koreans are on track to create five to eight new weapons this year, figures apace with the average of six weapons a year that they were constructing before the Trump-Kim summit.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, already deeply doubtful that inroads could be made with the North Koreans, has become disillusioned with the process when faced with the evidence, per NBC.

President Donald Trump, on the other hand, continues to tweet messages like “we will get it done together!” and “we will prove everyone wrong!” displaying his affection for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his desire to keep foreign policy messaging positive before the midterms.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Praise Kim while ignoring the nukes and starting a feud with Canada.
    Welcome to America.

  2. Then there’s this announcement for later today;

    White House national security adviser John Bolton on Monday will reportedly label the International Criminal Court (ICC) “illegitimate” in an effort to push back on its plan to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Americans in Afghanistan.

  3. As everyone here knows Trump’s only reality are the staged public relations events where he is the center of attention (which means any public event he attends - he always believes he is the center of attention).

    Thus the Singapore “Summit” with all the empty glitz proves to Trump what a great and brilliant statesman he is, greater than Lincoln and FDR and he will remain convinced that his brilliant deal making and the amazing force of his personality has “fixed” the North Korean nuclear weapon problem (if Pompeo and his other low energy incompetent possibly disloyal staff do not screw it all up).

    If a a violently repressive authoritarian tells him something, he believes it.

  4. Once a fool, always a fool.

  5. Is Trump’s info-bubble nuclear-hardened?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

23 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for silas1898 Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for bonvivant Avatar for stradivarius50t3 Avatar for careysub Avatar for dave_mb Avatar for benthere Avatar for tsp Avatar for ljb860 Avatar for rickjones Avatar for lizzymom Avatar for uneducated Avatar for not_so_fluffy Avatar for katscherger Avatar for stevens7810 Avatar for tompaine73 Avatar for euglena4056 Avatar for checkmate2016 Avatar for favoritecurmudgeon

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: