The Atlantic

Trump's First Major Foreign-Policy Success?

The president is right to do nothing publicly about North Korea
Source: Carlos Barria / Reuters

One of the more bizarre spectacles of Donald Trump’s young presidency came on Saturday night, when he stood with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a press conference called after North Korea launched a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan. Trump let Abe speak first, standing politely in the background as he condemned the test. When Trump took his turn, there was, uncharacteristically, no mention of inauguration crowd sizes, decrying of the media’s dishonesty, or settling of other political scores.

More importantly, he did not hype the threat of a North Korean missile hitting the United States. Seemingly longer prepared remarks, he

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