Can Trump command political support without real progress on trade and N. Korea?

[DonViejo]

By Dan Balz
June 12 at 7:18 PM

President Trump is now embarked on two ambitious foreign policy initiatives — redrawing the rules of international trade and defanging a nuclear-armed North Korea — that represent significant personal gambles. The question is, can he gain something politically from these efforts in the absence of demonstrable accomplishments?

The twin meetings of the past week, beginning with the Group of Seven gathering in Canada and followed immediately by the summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, highlighted a president always willing to shake the traditional order in defiance of norms and procedures. This was how he got elected, and it is how he has operated from the start — governing by breaking crockery.

The G-7 gathering and the Sing­apore summit taken together highlighted the president’s willingness to go against the grain, to offend his friends when they get under his skin and to butter up his adversaries in a calculated effort to get his way. His petulant reaction to relatively mild criticism from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (who said he would stand up for his country’s interests) and his praise for one of the world’s most brutal leaders produced head-spinning on all fronts.

What has been on display over the past five days are hallmarks of the Trumpian style: policy initiatives and processes that trample across political and establishment lines, great swings in rhetoric, promises and threats, anger and flattery. But then what? Trump is betting that it adds up to more than constant motion, that it is a winning political strategy in the end. It continues to bind him closely to his base. It infuriates his opponents but often keeps them off balance at the same time.

On trade, more Democrats than Republicans support his tougher, more confrontational policies, though their general dislike of the president keeps many from expressing it. Establishment Republicans, generally a bulwark of free-traders, dislike those policies, but few have truly confronted him. Many in Trump’s base see them as part of the president’s promise to put America first, and they applaud the president’s instincts, even in the absence of results.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/can-trump-command-political-support-without-real-progress-on-trade-and-n-korea/2018/06/12/83f95cc4-6e72-11e8-afd5-778aca903bbe_story.html

[bronxiteforever]

1. "Instead of government we had a stage

Instead of ideas, a prima donna’s rage
Instead of help, we were given a crowd.”
The Musical Evita, lyrics by Tim Rice