WASHINGTON—At the beginning of the week, you may have noticed that the North Koreans, those irrepressible scamps, threatened to cancel the upcoming summit with our president*, which he was counting on to strengthen his administration* in preparation for May sweeps. The Norks decided that, no, denuclearization did not mean what the president* and his team thought it meant. (The brilliant geopolitical strategery of John Bolton seems to have played into this.)

You might conclude from this that, having gotten the validation of a summit agreement out of the United States, a solid win by any measure, the Norks had just played the president* for an all-day sucker. Ah, but you would be wrong, because Art of the Deal! From CNN:

Referring to the Libya comparison, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday that she hadn't "seen that as part of any discussions so I'm not aware that that's a model that we're using. "I haven't seen that that's a specific thing. I know that that comment was made. There's not a cookie cutter model on how this would work." She continued, "This is the President Trump model. He's going to run this the way he sees fit. We're 100% confident, as we've said many times before, as I'm sure you're all aware, he's the best negotiator and we're very confident on that front."

Are you aware of this? I’m certainly not aware of this. What I am aware of is that the president*’s dealmaking genius starts and ends with the bankruptcy code and Other People’s Money, neither of which has a demonstrated track record as a tactic in the field of arms control. I also am aware that the North Koreans, apparently, can see a mark coming from an entire ocean away.

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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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