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Why Donald Trump’s insults may back Kim Jong-un into a nuclear-armed corner
Robert Delaney says the US president’s knack for shocking rhetoric worked better than expected in domestic politics, but his comments about the North Korean leader have crossed a dangerous line
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US President Donald Trump has proven to the established political class that shocking rhetoric now works like a gun in a knife fight.
Many in Washington thought Trump’s calling Mexicans rapists and commenting on Rosie O’Donnell’s “fat, ugly” face would derail his political momentum. Instead, these comments and many others helped usher him into the White House.
But the strategy that has worked well in many of Trump’s political skirmishes crosses a line from crude and coldly calculating to flagrantly irresponsible when used against North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.
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It is one thing to chastise demonstrators facing down white supremacists and denigrate women with references to blood. Such derogatory comments horrify Americans outside of Trump’s base and establish new lows for US politicians, but they don’t carry the possibility of grave consequences for the rest of the world.
Trump vs ‘rocket man’: What if North Korea is the problem, not Kim?
In repeatedly calling Kim “Rocket Man” and using other language to demean him, Trump has brought his schoolyard bully tactics into a conflict that has global thermonuclear war as one of several possible outcomes if cooler heads don’t prevail.
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