Donald Trump’s strategy for meeting with a man known for starving his people, publicly executing dissidents and everyday citizens on a whim via poisoning, firing squads, anti-aircraft missiles and even flamethrowers? A man (and his father before him) who has for years lied about North Korea’s intention to denuclearize, while building an arsenal? If you are Donald Trump, you hail him as a hero. What is this bizarre fake movie trailer that Donald Trump showed Kim Jong-un in his iPad?
If anyone understands the power of propaganda, it is Kim Jong-un. From the Associated Press:
Long an authoritarian state, North Korea has used propaganda films to shape public perception of its leaders, often portraying Kim and his family as gods. The current leader’s father, Kim Jong Il, was a longtime movie buff who had thousands of titles in his film collection and once led North Korea’s ministry of propaganda.
Trump, who starred on NBC’s reality show “The Apprentice” before entering politics, told reporters he was “not concerned at all” that the film could be used as propaganda, adding, “We could use that video for other countries.”
That fancy North Korean beach in the video? Donald Trump views the world through real estate eyes. He could make a mint building condos in North Korea! Seriously.
“North Korea has great beaches,” Trump told reporters. “You see that whenever they’re exploding cannons into the ocean. I said, ‘Boy, look at that view. Wouldn’t that make a great condo?’ ”
Trump said he advised Kim that instead of pursuing his nuclear ambitions, he should build “the best hotels in the world” on North Korea’s coastline to boost the country’s economy.
Would one of those hotels have Trump’s name emblazoned on the front? That promised magnificent North Korean condo world in the video? That’s actually footage of Miami.
And if that video were not disgraceful enough, Donald Trump had the audacity to pose for photos with the American flag standing next to the North Korean flag. The symbol of freedom around the world on equal footing with the symbol of oppression, murder and starvation. It is unconscionable, immoral and an international disgrace.
Republican strategist Steve Schmidt succinctly summarizes how utterly wrong it was for Trump to pose for photos in front of these side-by-side flags.
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-un is “very worrisome” and that Trump legitimized a brutal dictator.
When the final history is written on Donald Trump, this will be one of the darkest chapters of them all.