They're sending the president* to Asia, where they're going to uncrate him sporadically for 12—gulp—days. This account of the preparations for the trip in Politico does not make me swell up either with national pride or unreasonable confidence. I just hope we're all alive when he gets back.

Top aides have sought to keep the briefings short to avoid overloading the president with details but have scheduled dozens of them to plan public remarks and outline what he should say about North Korea on defense and China on trade. “We’ve kind of tried to do it in pieces so it’s easy to keep up with,” said another administration official, adding that National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Defense Secretary James Mattis have also briefed the president.

Great. Training wheels.

Trump also could be thrust into the middle of a tense dispute between Japan and South Korea over so-called comfort women, the term for the women and girls who were forced to serve Japanese soldiers sexually during World War II. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said Japan has not done enough to take legal responsibility over the issue, rejecting a 2015 agreement between the two countries.

“That could be a disaster,” an outside adviser to Trump said.

Well, yes. This can be said of a great number of things.

The president’s advisers acknowledge privately that Trump’s unpredictable behavior could complicate the trip in ways big and small, from potentially escalating the crisis on the Korean Peninsula to flouting complicated rules of procedure. “You never know what he’ll say,” an administration official said, adding that the grueling schedule could heighten the risk of mistakes. An outside adviser to the administration concurred: “The potential for error is huge.”

Jesus, take the wheel. And I was so looking forward to Christmas, too.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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