Donald Trump began his monumental day Tuesday by firing an acerbic tweet at his political critics and rivals, who have seized any platform possible to diminish the importance of his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"The fact that I am having a meeting is a major loss for the U.S., say the haters & losers," Trump wrote. "We have our hostages, testing, research and all missle [sic] launches have stoped [sic]. And these pundits, who have called me wrong from the beginning, have nothing else they can say!"
"We will be fine!" he concluded.
The tweet was sent many hours before the Singapore summit ended in the signing of an agreement between the United States and North Korea, which aims to serve as the building block for a new era of diplomatic relations between the two countries and a new future for the Korean Peninsula. But the "haters and losers" who lacked faith in the summit's success, aren't learning the lesson. Their hatred for Trump has driven them crazy. Once the summit concluded in unexpected triumph, they began focusing their prophecies of doom on the more distant future: Is there a deal? So what. The negotiations will fail when they get more detailed. Trump can only create a circus show.
Throughout his successful election campaign, Trump repeatedly said that as president he wouldn't show his cards and tell the enemy when and where the U.S. would attack him. This principle also guides the president when he undertakes large diplomatic initiatives, such as the summit with North Korea. Trump and his team maintained complete ambiguity ahead of the summit, obviously because the American side wasn't totally sure about the North Koreans' intentions. There was a desire to achieve a breakthrough – but not at all costs. There was certainly no intention to mimic the Obama administration's mad dash to a nuclear deal with Iran. This approach from Trump produced the historic event we witnessed Tuesday.
We mustn't forget that suspicion isn't the sole property of the Americans; Kim and his people also weren't sure they could trust the unpredictable Trump. Ultimately, they discovered someone trustworthy. The American president declared in advance that he won't waste time if he feels Kim isn't serious. He is aware of the risk he has assumed, and that the lengthy, arduous negotiations set to begin in the coming days to iron out the details of the framework agreement could blow up at any moment.
With that, from Trump's perspective, he hasn't conceded a thing. He can tighten the economic noose squeezing North Korea whenever he wants. Trump wanted to see up close whether the "little rocket man" was truly serious about wanting economic development for his country. To be sure, this desire means he wants the agreement with the U.S. to become reality more than anyone.
Trump created a new equation of deterrence, to which he has tied the Iran issue as well. The deterrence achieved vis-à-vis North Korea will also impact Iran. At the same time, the Iranians can learn an important lesson: North Korea garnered serious attention from Washington after it cheated, deceived and secretly developed an advanced nuclear and ballistic missile program. Iran will do all in its power to follow in Pyongyang's footsteps to become a global power whose desires have to be taken seriously. The Iranians must not be allowed this opportunity.
