A few days ago Steve Benen noted on Maddowblog that Trump has international boosters:
Russian President Vladimir Putin, for example, doesn’t care for President Obama, though the Russian autocrat seems to have more of a bond with Donald Trump. And North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un not surprisingly has no use for President Obama, though he too seems rather fond of the Republican Party’s would-be successor.
Two weeks ago, the GOP candidate raised a few eyebrows when asked whether he’s open to talking to the North Korean dictator. “I would speak to him, I would have no problem speaking to him,” Trump told Reuters. This led to yesterday’s developments, in which the North Korean government made clear how much it likes the presumptive Republican nominee.
Gordon Chang at The Daily Beast also contributes a report including China’s Xi Jinping endorsement of Trump.
I’ve been musing on the motivations of these leaders. Surely they realize that any influence they may wield in an American election would be diffuse and complex, i.e., hard to predict. Would the electorate move in a contrarian way? Ignore them? Surely not gravely consider their advice & endorsements.
But perhaps they just can’t restrain themselves. NK News notes,
Referring to the Trump’s speech in March to potentially withdraw the U.S. military forces from Seoul if it does not pay more for its defense costs, the North Korean editorial welcomed the policy with open arms.
“Yes do it, now … Who knew that the slogan ‘Yankee Go Home’ would come true like this? The day when the ‘Yankee Go Home’ slogan becomes real would be the day of Korean Unification.”
The same story contains an interview with an unnamed researcher:
A researcher said the odd editorial indicates Pyongyang’s wish to break through Washington’s strategic patience policy.
“He’s the Dennis Rodman of American politics — quirky, flamboyant, risk-taking. At the moment he’s also an outsider,” John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy In Focus told NK News.
“But Pyongyang is hoping that either he’ll be elected (and follows through on his pledges) or that his pronouncements will change the political game in the United States and influence how the Democratic party and mainstream Republicans view Korean issues.”
At The National they talk to an analyst:
Jeung Sang Wook of Korean Business News Daily has been following this developing story and adds that, “Kim Jong-Un is not in favor of Donald Trump’s policies on guns as, obviously, he’d like to see an America that is weaker militarily. However, he does apparently feel that of all of the potential United States candidates, Trump has the closest mindset to himself.”
Jeung Sang Wook continues, “Surprisingly, Kim Jong-Un was nearly ready to endorse Jim Webb as the official DPRK backed candidate, but he felt that Jim Webb’s showing at the recent Democrat political debate was lacking. His (Kim Jong-Un’s) overall support of Trump’s immigration policy, combined with Webb’s inability to conduct himself on the world stage helped solidify the decision.”
Perhaps the most cataclysmic is the aforementioned Gordon Chang report:
History is often marked by stretches of decades, and sometimes centuries, of relative calm, interrupted by truly horrendous events. President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe remembered the end of the world’s last great tragedy with their solemn remarks in Hiroshima on Friday. That global conflict began with grabs of territory by aggressors who believed the Western democracies would not stand firm.
Trump, with his desire to end treaty alliances and withdraw from Asia, can start a chain of events leading to the next horrific period as new sets of ambitious leaders see opportunities to take reefs, shoals, islands, and land of their neighbors, unopposed by America.
Which does nothing to explicate the strategy of these endorsements. Simple honesty? Even I’m not that naive.
