While Pres. Donald trump’s critics in the press and the Democratic Party launch political spitballs from the sidelines, the president has engineered more foreign-policy successes in recent weeks than Democrats managed in eight years under Obama. This is not good news for a headless, manic Democratic Party or its media allies.
Trump sets North Korean strategy during Syrian airstrikes
Thursday, while Trump entertained Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping, U.S. Navy ships destroyed about a fifth of the Syrian Air Force in retaliation for that government’s chemical genocide against its own people.
Liberal media outlets tried to frame the cruise missile airstrike against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal dictatorship as overreaching. However, the world’s reaction was positive, as was that of the American people, generally speaking.
Democrats tout 'tight' Kansas race while Trump touts foreign policy
While enjoying an after dinner slice of chocolate cake, Trump and Xi agreed to work closely together to denuclearize North Korea. While media attempted to gin up controversy this week over a so-called tight special congressional election contest between a Democrat and Republican in Kansas, the agreement between Trump and Jinping was playing out. China sent 150,000 of its troops to North Korea’s border to send a message to Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s hapless dictator, to stop firing missiles into the sea and threatening to nuke other countries.
Meanwhile, Trump ordered the US Navy's USS Carl Vinson carrier-strike group to position itself just off the Korean peninsula. The world has not made this much progress in defanging the wild-eyed North Korean leader in a decade. At the same time, Republicans managed to hold onto that seat in Kansas by a seven point margin. By 10 o’clock Wednesday morning it was difficult to find a story about the Kansas race anywhere.
"China insists on realizing the denuclearization of the peninsula ... and is willing to maintain communication and coordination with the American side over the issue on the peninsula," Xi was quoted as saying after his meeting with Trump. China has thumbed its nose at attempts by past U.S. administrations to neuter the North Korean’s nuclear proliferation operations.
North Korea heavily dependent on China
Other than the obvious geographic connection, China represents about 85% of North Korea's exports and supplies and roughly 80% of North Korea’s energy needs, which may explain why Trump wined and dined Xi and made long phone calls to him. Trump’s message has been clear: the U.S. welcomes cooperation from the Chinese government in denuclearizing the rogue state of North Korea. However, the U.S. is going to solve the problem either way.
China is motivated by its own concerns over North Korea’s bid to mount nuclear warheads on its medium-range missiles. However, the U.S. imports a staggering amount of Chinese products and that government may be as wary of what Trump might do in the area of trade over the next few years as what North Korea might do with missiles in that time frame.
Whatever the case, cooperation between China and the U.S. is now a reality, which is a much bigger story than Democrats discovering that they aren't in Kansas.