Trump-Kim Summit Included Talk of Hotel Development

A few cynics out there are surveying the landscape after the unprecedented meeting between a sitting United States president and a bona fide, murderous, foreign dictator and saying that absolutely nothing of consequence came out of this.

Not me!

To be clear, I’m still in awe. Not only were my expectations met, they were exceeded.

By exceeded, I mean I knew Trump would come away from his sit down meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un with absolutely nothing beneficial to the United States or the efforts of peace. I even highly suspected that North Korea would come away from that meeting with all the benefits.

That’s exactly what happened.

We saw, for the first time in our history, a hostile nation’s flag made equal, put to the right of, and on the same level as the United States flag.

But Trump has a problem with people “disrespecting” the flag by kneeling during the national anthem. There’s a kick in the head.

China is now advocating for sanctions relief for North Korea, with absolutely nothing to show for it.

Will President Trump go for that?

He dances to the tunes played by China and Russia, so, it’s a strong possibility that he will.

President Trump also agreed to end the readiness drills with South Korea, while allowing Kim Jong Un to say North Korea would “work towards” denuclearization.

There was no talk of inspections or confirmation of those efforts. In fact, Trump said that he trusted Kim and that Kim trusted him. It wasn’t in any signed agreement, but Trump said they didn’t have to.

He even went on to say that the North Korean people loved Kim Jong Un and that he loved his country.

They do call him “Dear Leader,” after all.

Trump says that Kim Jong Un loves his people. pic.twitter.com/C1dpIcH8v0

— The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) June 12, 2018

But there’s more!

The United States may have came out on the short end, as expected, but that doesn’t mean Donald Trump came out of it empty handed.

He’s got prospects.

While speaking to reporters after the summit, President Trump said that he gave Kim options beyond developing nuclear weapons.

He told them they could have hotels.

“Instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world right there,” Trump said he told Kim. “Think of it from a real estate perspective.”

Trump’s comments came as he wrapped up a trip to Singapore, where he held a historic face-to-face meeting with Kim and signed an agreement committing the U.S. to unspecified “security guarantees” in exchange for the eventual denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

So the United States committed to “security guarantees,” which very well may mean loosening of sanctions and who knows what else. North Korea, by comparison, only gave vague allusions to what they may or may not do.

But there was talk of hotel development, and if you don’t think these hotels won’t have the Trump name on them, you haven’t been paying attention.

Prior to his departure for Singapore on Saturday, Trump spoke about North Korea’s potential to be a “great” country. But his comments on Tuesday put his experience as a real estate developer on full display.

“You have South Korea, you have China and they own the land in the middle. How bad is that, right?” he continued. “It’s great.”

Can we take another look at the details of the emoluments clause, again?

Trump said he brought Kim to the table by showing him what the future could look like should he choose the path of peace: "Instead of [testing missiles] you could have the best hotels in the world right there. Think of it from a real estate perspective" https://t.co/XBC0Sh0nRK pic.twitter.com/dlxvxLPcLG

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 12, 2018

Trump has lavished praise on a man whose atrocities against his own people have been [credibly] compared to Nazi Germany. He has made every allowance for him. He has given him legitimacy on par with our own nation.

This is not leadership. This is Neville Chamberlain territory.

Republicans thought Barack Obama’s “lead from behind” strategy was a disaster, and it was. How much more so is acquiescence to tyrants?