Yet again, the president has proven himself seemingly unaware of the fact that social media is not the place to air domestic and foreign policy ideas, although, notably, this time around, the drastic aspect to what he publicized on social media was less striking than it’s been in the past.
Through all of his social media defined turmoil, the president has opted against surrounding himself with individuals with any great experience. When he has allowed experienced individuals with a verifiable level of competence into his orbit, he’s either refused to take their advice or they’ve made themselves subservient to the president’s belligerence — or both.
On Thursday, Trump announced on Twitter that he was going to be meeting with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who served under Republican President Richard Nixon. Ironically, many have drawn parallels between the presidencies of Nixon and Trump, seeing as both men found themselves under the burden of significant investigations and responded by lashing out against the nation’s justice system.
Nixon, of course, resigned in the face of impending impeachment, but no similar fate has yet befallen President Donald Trump.
Trump, in line with Kissinger’s own background, stated on Twitter that he would be discussing issues of foreign policy with the former secretary of state, writing that the two would “be discussing North Korea, China and the Middle East.”
Trump has proven relatively incompetent across the board when it comes to those issues, with at least two sets of related issues getting arguably worse since he’s taken office.
North Korea has continued to work on developing their capabilities to strike the United States and other allies of ours, with the West having so far responded with sanctions that are potent, but whose effectiveness at reining in the North Korean regime remains to be seen, since it’s not as though the threat of their arsenal has gone away.
All the while, Trump has given the North Koreans plenty of propaganda material with his relentless assertions that he is prepared to annihilate the country if provoked.
In the case of the Middle East, Trump has exacerbated tensions through his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, something that the Palestinians, aiming to have some portion of the city as their own capital, have reacted in anger to.
Trump, then, prepared for his meeting with Kissinger under the shadow of these issues.
Kissinger himself has long attracted controversy for his role in peddling under the table conflict around the world, something that the president has in the past expressed an intense opposition to — although this year, the administration is building our presence in Afghanistan.
Kissinger recently commented before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that there is a strong “temptation” to carry out a preemptive strike against the North Koreans, a stance that is not exactly going to help our case in building our position against the North Koreans.
In addition, considering the fact that the president himself has expressed an openness to carrying out a preemptive strike against the North Koreans in the past, it’s not exactly promising for someone of Kissinger’s persuasion to be in his ear — but here we are anyway.
Check out Twitter’s response to the president below.
Featured Image via Mike Theiler/ Pool via Bloomberg
