How anti-Trump hysteria helps the president on North Korea

Most of us realize that the hysterical anti-Trump resistance has difficulty keeping its talking points straight. The latest example concerns North Korea.

Last year’s talking point was that Trump, with his “fire and fury” talk, was leading the U.S. into a nuclear war with North Korea. It was a ridiculous claim.

The likelihood of Kim Jong Un launching a first strike against the U.S., thereby bringing on “fire and fury,” was low. The likelihood of Trump launching a first strike against North Korea, thus setting South Korea, where more than 100,000 Americans live and/or work, ablaze and risking a strike against population centers in the U.S., was similarly low. But any anti-Trump talking point suits the resistance and if it creates fear among the gullible, so much the better.

In the aftermath of the Singapore summit, the anti-Trump talking point is that Trump accomplished nothing of consequence. And it’s certainly true that the summit has produced neither denuclearization nor any significant nuclear dismantling.

But no rational and objective observer who followed the summit and saw Trump and Kim behaving so cordially can believe that Trump is leading the U.S. into a nuclear war with North Korea. Nor, with a few weird exceptions, are leftists peddling this talking point any longer.

In reality, the likelihood of war has diminished only slightly — let’s say from very unlikely to very, very unlikely. But because anti-Trumpers induced many to believe war was imminent, many now believe they are much safer thanks to the summit.

Logically, Trump should receive no credit if you believe he brought us to the brink of war with North Korea and then pulled us back. But I don’t think this is what people believe now. They probably now believe, correctly, that Trump used tough talk to bring Kim to the table. And they probably believe, correctly, that this was a good thing.

Most of all, I think they feel relief — relief they would not have felt, and certainly not to the same degree, if the Democrats hadn’t drummed up hysteria about an impending war with North Korea. Trump will likely benefit politically from that sense of relief.

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