Hold your peace

On May 2, Congressman Cramer joined 17 of his colleagues in the House of Representatives in nominating that great diplomat of our era, Donald Trump, for the Nobel Peace Prize. “We can think of no one more deserving of the Committee’s recommendation in 2019 than President Trump for his tireless work to bring peace to our world,” they wrote in their letter, suggesting that the man more known for threatening “fire and fury” on countries he wants to punish should instead join the ranks of Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, and Nelson Mandela as recipients of the legendary honor.

In his own press release about the nomination, Congressman Cramer stated that “[Trump’s] leadership has helped deescalate the Korean conflict of decades of hate and distrust, as well as getting North Korea to pledge to work toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

When Trump himself was asked by reporters in the White House whether he felt he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize, he was bullish on his prospects. “Everybody thinks so,” Trump said.

Well, maybe not everybody. Maybe not anybody, in fact, outside of the Representatives who signed that letter. While Trump went on to talk about “victory for the world” while praising North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (the same dictator he ridiculed as “Little Rocket Man” just a few short months ago) and boasting about their upcoming summit, Trump’s own Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, seemed to have other ideas, quickly backing away entirely from the notion of denuclearization.

Even North Korea, it seems, has other ideas: As this issue was going to press, North Korea threatened to cancel the summit entirely. Why? Well, because of this pesky notion of them giving up their nuclear weapons—you know, the entire reason for both the summit itself and for Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination. Oh yes—there’s one more thing the North Koreans were upset about: The promise that Trump made of reviving and resuscitating the North Korean economy—at the expense, of course, of American taxpayers.

If this sounds familiar, it should: Just days before this latest North Korean threat, Trump tweeted something that made virtually no sense whatsoever. “President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!”

Analysts quickly called this statement “a stunning reversal that officials said came without a formal policy process at the White House.” Other analysts, more informally, pronounced Trump nuts. Even Trump’s diehard fans were left scratching their heads: What about “America First”? How was this going to “Make American Great Again”?

By way of quick background: A little more than a year ago, ZTE was forced to pay a $1.7 billion fine after illegally shipping electronics gear to Iran and North Korea and pled guilty to obstructing justice, violating US policy, and making false statements. More recently, our top counterintelligence official warned the Senate Intelligence Committee that ZTE’s phones may be being used to spy on Americans in the U.S. on behalf of the Chinese government, posing a massive national security risk.

Why would Trump do such a thing? Nobody knows—however, two days before Trump’s abrupt and shocking policy reversal, something interesting happened: China loaned $500 million to a Trump project in Indonesia.

Suddenly that Nobel Peace Prize is looking even more iffy. The whole concept of North Korea threatening to pull out of the big Peace On Earth World Summit caught our State Department entirely “off guard,” said one White House insider. It’s worth noting, just for the record, that this is the State Department that saw the top American diplomat in charge of North Korea resign three months ago, with no replacement on the horizon; at the same time, their top nuclear expert resigned two weeks ago after Trump announced that he was pulling out of our nuclear agreement with Iran; and 13 months into his administration, Trump still hasn’t appointed an ambassador to our biggest ally in the region—South Korea—or to 49 other countries, for that matter.

People are starting to notice, too: Since his inauguration, Trump’s approval rating in North Dakota has plummeted by 23 percent. As of press time, just 49 percent of North Dakotans approve of what he’s doing, while 47 percent disapprove.

Robert Mueller, meanwhile, just keeps his head down and keeps working.