North Korean insults to U.S. leaders are nothing new - but Trump's deeply personal reactions are

[DonViejo]

By Adam Taylor November 11 at 11:30 PM

In a string of tweets fired off Sunday morning from Hanoi, Vietnam, President Trump responded with sarcastic insults to a recent message from the North Korean government that had referred to him as “old.”

Link to tweet

The message marks an unusually personal escalation of the tensions between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang's weapons program. It is also another sign of the change in rhetoric used to address North Korea since Trump took office: Though North Korea has long been known for hurling bellicose insults at world leaders, rarely have those world leaders responded in kind.

Of course, Trump is a not your average world leader. The current president is a pugnacious social media user often willing to respond with his own harsh words when he feels wronged. As a spokeswoman for his wife, Melania Trump, put it earlier this year, when Trump is attacked “he will punch back 10 times harder.”

Whether this instinct to hit back could help his self-described efforts toward becoming Kim's friend in the future — or harm them — is unclear.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/11/11/north-korean-insults-to-u-s-leaders-are-nothing-new-but-trumps-deeply-personal-reactions-are

[gvstn]

1. Timely twitter comment on Trump's juvenile tweet.

Link to tweet

?s=17

[Wounded Bear]

2. True strength lies in egnoring petty insults...

Reacting and "fighting back" are not adult behaviors. At best they are adolescent, in Trump's case they are down right childish.