As 2018 begins, Donald Trump seems to be channeling Theodore Roosevelt.

TR famously said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” which Trump only half believes — the big stick part. Speaking softly? Forget about it!

But here’s the other TR quote that seems apropos for Trump right now, especially in foreign policy:

“Once you have them by the (bleep), their hearts and minds will follow.”

Just ask Kim Jong Un, also known as Little Rocket Man. Yesterday, LRM issued an unexpected New Year’s olive branch of sorts to the prosperous First World democracy that his destitute Third World hellhole shares a peninsula with. It concerned the upcoming Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

“We sincerely wish that the event will be held with good results.”

Oh sure, he also rattled the sabers against the U.S., bragging about having a button on his desk like Matt Lauer used to have at NBC, only instead of locking the door on an intern, the way Lauer’s button did, LRM’s button allows him to launch a nuclear weapon at the U.S.

Or so he claims.

But the key is, sending his regards to South Korea could mean, as The New York Times grudgingly puts it, “a slight thaw” over what the Democrats were wetting their pants over last week — a potential nuclear war in Asia.

Of course, the alt-left pajama boys can’t give Trump credit for anything, so the Times had to also speculate that maybe LRM was merely trying to “drive a wedge” between the U.S. and South Korea.

But that’s just what the Times and the rest of ’em do. They can’t help themselves.

Do you suppose this sudden “thaw” in Pyongyang has anything to do with the fact that China just shut down its biggest bridge for sending supplies into North Korea for “repairs”? Odd, how that bridge that’s a lifeline for LRM’s crappy country should suddenly fall apart immediately after Trump, Rex Tillerson and Nikki Haley started yelling at the Chinese … .

Apparently Trump knows something about grabbing body parts other than the ones he was bragging about grabbing in that Access Hollywood tape.

Things finally seem to be breaking America’s way in foreign policy. How do we know this? Because CNN and MSNBC et al., are suddenly silent about, among other things, Iran, which just happens to be, like NoKo, part of the old “Axis of Evil.”

Iran is now wracked by riots against the savage Muslim theocracy that Obama and John Kerry spent eight years trying to prop up. The population is rising up because the economy is in ruins, and why is that? Because the price of oil has collapsed, and why is that?

Could it possibly have something to do with the fact that the U.S. is suddenly the world’s leading energy producer again? The Keystone XL pipeline is being built — thank you, President Trump! — and that will drive oil prices even lower, which means less money for Hezbollah and all the other terrorists Iran supports.

“Along with human rights,” Trump tweeted yesterday, “the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!”

Already, the new Dakota Access Pipeline is leading to increases in U.S. oil production, which means less money for Iran, and more riots for mullahs. In September alone, production in North Dakota increased 78,000 barrels a day. It’s a toss-up who’s angrier, Tom Steyer or Ayatollah Khamenei. Either way, I call this winning.

Next country to get a little TR medicine courtesy of Donald J. Trump: Pakistan.

Trump tweeted yesterday how the U.S. has handed that Muslim kleptocracy $33 billion in the last 15 years “and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit…. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan with little help. No more!”

If the North Korea-Iran pattern follows, this may not be a very happy new year for the Taliban.

Remember how during the South Carolina primary in 2016, Trump told the crowd at a golf club: “We’re going to win so much, you’re going to get tired of winning.”

Not yet, Mr. President, not yet.

Order Howie’s new book “Kennedy Babylon” at howiecarrshow.com.