Trump Lies a Lot. So Why Do We Believe Him on China and North Korea?

People do a great job of fact checking the president’s claims on issues they don’t agree with, but on China the fact checking seems to be a bit lax.

On Monday morning, President Trump tweeted, “China, on the other hand, may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade-Hope Not!”

Trump is using his difficulties with the handling the North Korea situation to amplify his self-started trade war with China. The problem with Trump’s statement is that it is unlikely that China is behind North Korea’s recent rebukes of Trump.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Trump would lie. He started off his term lying about the crowd size at his inauguration. Politifact lists Trump making ‘True’ statements only 5% of the time. The New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired, the LA Times, Vox, and countless other publications have called Trump on his lies.

But when Trump blames China for turning North Korea against him, no one says a word. Part of the problem seems to be that China is a major global competitor. Also, historically China had significant influenxe over North Korean policy. But China lost much of their influence over North Korea in 2013 when the North Koreans purged their pro-China government officials.

Since 2013, Russia has been using North Korea as part of their Pacific effort of their active measures. Russia is wielding North Korea like a wedge to amplify the fracture lines between the United States, China, and other countries in the Pacific. There is plenty about which to be upset with China — IP theft, human rights, military expansion in the South China Sea, etc., but North Korea is not one of them.

A lot of people on the left wonder how those on the right can believe Trump’s lies. When it comes to issues like North Korea, the left seems just as willing to believe the lie as the right. We know that Russia’s already trying to interfere in the 2018 elections. Trump has already asked Putin what he should do in North Korea, and this is just going to be another piece of ammunition with which Putin can manipulate Trump when they meet next week. This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.