The president has defined himself while in office by charting his own path for himself. Rather than focus on the counsel of advisers, experienced or otherwise, he’s made it clear that he relies on himself above all when making policy decisions, sometimes even being explicit in that regard.
Besides when he’s been explicit about his commitment to consulting himself above others, he’s also made it clear through his rash decisions while in office. Among the most recent examples of this tendency is the president seemingly having blindsided top officials by accepting an invitation to meet with the leader of North Korea.
At the Friday White House press conference, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did insist that Trump hadn’t actually blindsided anyone of any stature in the White House. That doesn’t change the fact, however, that just recently officials as high ranking as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson dismissed the idea of imminent negotiations.
Tillerson, for his part, insisted that he hadn’t been blindsided because Trump was going to North Korea for a “talk” and not “negotiations,” even though at least one expert notes that the distinction is completely arbitrary.
The tumult over Trump’s acceptance of an invitation to meet Kim Jong-un isn’t occurring in a vacuum; there has been a back and forth going on between the two leaders for some time. The tumult has been unfolding since at least last fall, when the president pledged to make “fire and fury” rain down upon North Korea if need be.
Against this backdrop, a Norwegian food brand known as KiMs recently released an ad parodying the present state of U.S./ North Korea relations.
The full ad is about one and a half minutes long and has the song “Why Can’t We Be Friends” playing, with various characters in the animated production “singing” the words. There are pairs in the ad ranging from a wolf and a sheep to Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.
Check out the ad below. The Trump character “sings” a line, “I’ve seen you walking down in China Town,” and the character representing Kim Jong-un then sings the line, “I called you but you could not look around.” The characters then share noodles Lady and the Tramp style, with their mouths hitting each other in a kiss before a curtain closes.
This ad is hardly the only recent high profile parody of the relationship between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un. For instance, a couple of individuals impersonating the duo showed up at the recently held Winter Olympics in South Korea.
The two impersonators brought a message of peace to the Games, which a North Korean delegation including Kim Jong-un’s own sister was in attendance at.
Trump has, as mentioned, often made it clear that he’s open to the idea of using military force against the North Koreans, even though the number of civilian casualties from such an excursion would likely be enormous. Someone somewhere in the Trump administration has performed the invaluable task of blocking Trump from actually launching something against North Korea.
Featured Image via SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
