You’ll have to forgive Trump for having said nothing, as of 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, about a hostile, nuclear-armed totalitarian government conducting its second missile launch in a week, as the president has been otherwise occupied attacking a black congressman and his majority-African American district of Baltimore, and then claiming that he’s “the least racist person there is anywhere in the world.” Also the launch makes his “deal” with dictator Kim Jong Un to stop nuclear testing and intercontinental ballistic missile launches—plus their follow-up photo op at the demilitarized zone—look extra stupid:
Last week, the president attempted to downplay his favorite dictator’s first weapons test of the month, saying that the North Koreans “really haven’t tested any missiles” other than “smaller ones, which is something lots test.” Trump and Kim, after all, are pen pals. In June, the president spoke glowingly of a “beautiful letter” he said he received from Kim, telling reporters that the North Korean leader—whose country has been described as “the world’s biggest open prison camp” and who has had multiple family members killed—“totally gets it.” Trump added that he’d made real progress in North Korea, despite the protestations of actual North Korea experts. “No major missile testing, nothing like when I first got here,” he continued, lying. “When I first got here, it was a bad mess. We have a very good relationship together.”
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