The President of the United States loves dictators and authoritarian leaders. We have grown so accustomed to his praise for Russia's Vladimir Putin (who routinely invades neighboring countries and whose critics and political opponents keep turning up dead), the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte (who has sanctioned the extrajudicial killings of people accused of trafficking drugs), or Turkey's Recep Erdogan (who's waged an assault on democracy and human rights in his country and whose guards allegedly attacked protesters in ours), that it's no longer remarkable.

But spare a moment, as the second North Korean nuclear summit kicks off in Vietnam this week, for what the American President reportedly said to North Korea's Kim Jong-un the last time they got together in Singapore.

"President Donald Trump was looking to flatter his new friend in Singapore when he struck upon an unusual compliment," CNN's Kylie Atwood and Kevin Liptak reported. "He had known plenty of people who had grown up wealthy and whose families were powerful, Trump told Kim Jong Un, the despotic North Korean dictator whose father and grandfather held the same role. Many of them emerged messed up, Trump said. But, he added, Kim wasn't one of them."

AFP Getty Images

Kim is apparently "not messed up," even though our allies in South Korea say he ordered the murder of his half-brother with a nerve agent classified as a weapon of mass destruction. A book by a former South Korean intelligence officer says Kim ordered the execution of his own uncle with an immensely powerful anti-aircraft gun that decimated his body, which was then incinerated with a flamethrower. This was after the uncle, Jang Song-thaek, was forced to witness two of his senior deputies get the same treatment, causing him to faint. That was in addition to a "purge" of about 50 government officials "on charges ranging from graft to watching South Korean soap operas."

On a macro level, Kim's North Korea is a human rights disaster, as hundreds of thousands of citizens are imprisoned or in labor camps on political charges. Famines over the years have led to mass starvation ending in the deaths of between hundreds of thousands and three million people. The United Nations has found Kim's crimes against humanity include "enslavement, extermination, forced abortion, imprisonment, murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and torture."

Kim Jong-un waves from his car after arriving by train at Dong Dang railway station near the border with China on February 26, 2019 in Lang Son, Vietnam. Linh Pham Getty Images

All this is to say that Kim Jong-un is unequivocally "messed up." That the United States president does not think so is a stunning indictment of his worldview, and his own upbringing. It seems Kim has the characteristics he values—power, domination, ruthlessness, money—and none of the perceived weaknesses to which Trump believes rich kids are prone. Unfortunately, it brings to mind Trump's own family and his older brother's struggles with alcoholism, which he both expressed sympathy about and exploited.

This is, of course, just the latest occasion where Trump praised Kim, following a terrifying start where they engaged in insult-trading while North Korea launched a steady stream of long-range missile tests. Having once derided Kim as "Rocket Man" at the United Nations General Assembly—another proud moment for the United States of America—Trump now says the two "fell in love." It's certainly a good idea to be on speaking terms rather than a Twitter beef with nuclear conflict on the line, but it is not necessary to roll out such effusive praise for someone who habitually commits crimes against humanity. Combined with Trump's steady criticism of our allies in European democracies and the praise for other dictators, it sends all the wrong messages to the world.

Plus, it's hard to believe Kim and his crew buy any of this so soon after Trump claimed to be horrified by their human-rights abuses at the U.N. Will Kim really dish out the concessions this time, after most analysts found Trump got next to nothing from the last summit's negotiations? U.S. intelligence chiefs recently testified before Congress, much to Trump's chargin, that North Korea has no intention to fully denuclearize. It's unclear what leverage he's built up between then and now. Surely the Artful Dealmaker knows being nice never got anyone anywhere.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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