Beautiful letters pay off. Trump wants to reward his best bud with a pass on nukes
by digby
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| A very generous American gesture to a murderous dictator who has done absolutely nothing to deserve it |
The New York Times reports that the Trump administration may be deciding to just let North Korea keep its nuclear arsenal if they “promise” not to make any more. That’s nice. Kiss Trump’s ass and you can do anything you want. I’m sure that lesson will be taken by many others around the world.
But then, Trump’s always been pretty blase about nuclear weapons. He cares much more about having strongmen flatter him (even though they’re all manuipulating him like a five year old.)
Recall this from the campaign:
Recall this comment in an interview in April 2016 with the Washington Post:
HIATT: Well I guess the question is, does the United States gain anything by having bases [in South Korea]?
TRUMP: Personally I don’t think so. I personally don’t think so. Look. I have great relationships with South Korea. I have buildings in South Korea. But that’s a wealthy country. They make the ships, they make the televisions, they make the air conditioning. They make tremendous amounts of products. It’s a huge, it’s a massive industrial complex country. And —
HIATT: So you don’t think the US gains from being the force that sort of that helps keep the peace in the Pacific?
TRUMP: I think that we are not in the position that we used to be. I think we were a very powerful, very wealthy country. And we’re a poor country now.
He said this at roughly the same time:
ANDERSON COOPER:So you have no problem with Japan and South Korea having nuclear weapons?
TRUMP: At some point we have to say, you know what, we’re better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea, we’re better off, frankly, if South Korea is going to start to protect itself, we have …
COOPER: Saudi Arabia, nuclear weapons?
TRUMP: Saudi Arabia, absolutely.
COOPER: You would be fine with them having nuclear weapons?
TRUMP: No, not nuclear weapons, but they have to protect themselves or they have to pay us. Here’s the thing, with Japan, they have to pay us or we have to let them protect themselves.
COOPER: So if you said, Japan, yes, it’s fine, you get nuclear weapons, South Korea, you as well, and Saudi Arabia says we want them, too?
TRUMP: Can I be honest with you? It’s going to happen anyway. It’s going to happen anyway. It’s only a question of time. They’re going to start having them or we have to get rid of them entirely. But you have so many countries already, China, Pakistan, you have so many countries, Russia, you have so many countries right now that have them.
Now, wouldn’t you rather in a certain sense have Japan have nuclear weapons when North Korea has nuclear weapons?
Now that Kim Jong Un has successfully sucked up to Trump, he’s in the club too.
Basically, the Trump Doctrine comes down to “pay me (us) or else we’ll blow this place up right now.”
The only thing that really matters to him is money. In every other respect he is a total nihilist. “Waddaya gonna do, shit happens, people die, whatever….”
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