Jeffery Goldberg of The Atlantic wrote a piece of about Trump’s foreign policy doctrine, which Trump’s own advisors summed up as “No friends, no enemies” and “We’re America, bitches.”
Trump met with Kim Jong Un on Tuesday for a few hours. They shook hands for a photo-op and signed a four point agreement. There was nothing new in the agreement and North Korea does not at this point have to make any concrete concessions. Conventional wisdom is that the world is safer because the summit makes war less likely in the short term, but that not much will change on the ground in North Korea.
By Wednesday Trump and the North Koreans were making contradictory claims about what they had just agreed to. And Trump was taking flack for saying the North Korea nuclear problem was as good as solved, and that Kim loved his people. Tellingly, Pompeo got prickly when he was asked with the process is for complete nuclear disarmament. “I find that question insulting and ridiculous and, frankly, ludicrous,” he said.
The DOD is working with South Korea to scale back or cancel the joint trainings this fall.
Primaries on Tuesday further cemented Trump’s hold on the GOP. Mark Sanford of North Carolina lost his primary due to some criticism of the president, even though he votes with Trump 89% of the time. Corey Stewart won the GOP primary for the Virginia senate race against Tim Kaine. He has supported one of organizers of the Charlottesville rally, an avowed White Nationalist, but has since withdrawn his support.
On Friday the New York Attorney General sued the Trump Foundation for illegal use of charity funds. Legal experts say people have gone to jail for less egregious misuse of funds. The case was referred to the IRS, which may pursue penalties against Trump and his children.
In Russian News:
On Friday, a judge agreed to send Manafort to jail until his trial in September based on Mueller’s claims of witness tampering.
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Trump’s Job Approval: 42.1%