Quote of the Day: Trump Says North Korea De-Nuking Will “Start Now”

Terence Tan/MCI via ZUMA

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From Donald Trump, on Kim Jong Un’s plans for his nuclear arsenal:

I mean he’s de-nuking the who-o-o-le place, and he’s going to start very quickly, I think he’s going to start now.

I feel like I’m in some kind of parallel dimension or something. Sure, there’s plenty of skepticism about what Kim is really going to do, but there’s also a lot of folks who are suggesting this is a “good first step,” or we’re “no longer on the brink of war,” or “maybe Trump really does have a new relationship with Kim.”

Have I lost it completely? Where is this stuff coming from? I’ll grant you that this entire process was driven by Kim, and there’s no telling for sure what he’s up to. It’s possible that he really does want to turn over a new leaf. Everything is possible, I suppose. But after reading the joint communique, which was as devoid of substance as a bit of cotton candy, does anyone seriously believe this?

I don’t. But once again we’re stuck in the weird netherworld of “maybe Trump has a bit of a point” after we discover some tiny kernel of semi-truth inside his interminable barrage of nonsense and babble. Why? The man lies about everything. His statements have no special relationship to reality at all. We know this. Everyone knows this. Why do we keep hoping that maybe this time is different?

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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