Dan Scavino Jr/Wikimedia Commons

After meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore last month, Donald Trump tweeted a bold statement.

Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018

As most people noticed, the idea that there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea was, at minimum, a bit premature. As that critique began to take shape, the president had to create a false narrative to bolster his claims of some great accomplishment.

If President Obama (who got nowhere with North Korea and would have had to go to war with many millions of people being killed) had gotten along with North Korea and made the initial steps toward a deal that I have, the Fake News would have named him a national hero! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018

Because Trump wants us to inhabit the delusional world he creates out of whole cloth, he doesn’t want us to examine historical facts.

North Korea previously pledged to denuclearize in 1985, 1992, 1994, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2016. Each pledge was a lie, so I guess no one could have seen it coming that Kim would lie in 2018 about denuclearization, especially not Gullible Orange Goofus — Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) July 7, 2018

Perhaps that’s why the president finds a “kindred spirit” in the leader of North Korea. They both lie…a lot.

With Pompeo’s recent trip to North Korea, the lies from both sides are beginning to be exposed.

If Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to North Korea on Friday and Saturday was designed to ease worries about the progress on denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang, it seems to have failed. Just hours after Pompeo left the North Korean capital and described the negotiations as “productive,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry released a scathing statement that cast the entire endeavor in doubt. “The U.S. side came up only with its unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization,” the statement said, adding that the American attitude toward the talks had been “regrettable.”

I found this to be a thought-provoking reaction:

The good news: If diplomacy continues to stall, Trump will probably not go back on the war path because that would require him to admit he got suckered by Kim. The bad news: He got suckered by Kim. https://t.co/sW2b1bWouW — Colin Kahl (@ColinKahl) July 7, 2018

It’s true, Trump got suckered by Kim. Now that the president has declared for all the world to see that “there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea,” can he backtrack to the days when he and Kim were comparing the size of their nuclear buttons? If the answer to that question is “no,” then it will be Trump’s war with North Korea that has been averted, not Obama’s.

But to assume that this president can’t return to threatening war is to assume that his thoughts and reactions follow in a logical path. They don’t. He is capable of creating a whole new narrative that will absolve him of personal responsibility for getting suckered. That process is already underway. Here’s what he tweeted this morning:

I have confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake. We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea. China, on the other hand, may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade-Hope Not! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2018

As things fall apart with North Korea, Trump is already floating the trial balloon that China is to blame because his administration is being so tough on trade issues with them. The one thing we can be sure of is that this president will never admit to being suckered because that would look weak and nothing threatens Trump’s narcissistic ego more than weakness. So obviously it’s time for his old pattern of lie, distract and blame. For now, it looks like the target is going to be China, but that could change at a moment’s notice if another potential emerges.