Donald Trump’s name is nothing new to the media. Social media and the news alike have his face constantly plastered up since his winning of the presidency. Kathy Griffin even “cut off” his head as a political statement.
But now he’s drawing attention by provoking North Korea, of all countries. He claims to be protecting the country because we’ve received threats from them on numerous occasions in the past years.
“They’ve been doing this to our country for a long time, for many years, and it’s about time that somebody stuck up for the people of this country,” Trump said.
In some aspects, I can’t be angry with Trump because he’s using the same tactic that Harry Truman used back in 1945 during World War II. Truman threatened Japan with nuclear bombs three times. Twice, he followed through, but the third threat was just a bluff due to lack of resources. Trump is putting up this tough front to possibly scare North Korea off. However, Trump’s comment that the North would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen” is a bit of a bold statement. Is there any firepower actually behind these threats? I would hope so if he’s going to be speaking with such audacity. But according to him, “We don’t talk about that.” I understand that he wants to instill fear and doubt into Kim Jong-Un, but how are we as citizens supposed to respond?
What makes this even better is that Kim Jong-Un is playing along with the “whose gun is bigger” game. They both have some overcompensation issues if you ask me, but they’re playing on a much larger spectrum than just disputing on Twitter–not that Jong-Un could access the platform. I honestly have a mental image of them as miniature caricatures just arguing about who’s more powerful. So to continue this melodramatic and arrogance-driven feud, North Korea clapped back to the threats with, “They should be mindful that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s strategic steps accompanied by physical action will be taken mercilessly with the mobilization of all its national strength.”
According to Newsweek, North Korea is now capable of making smaller nuclear weapons that can be deposited in their current missiles. While that is alarming information, I’m a bit hesitant to express real fear considering their constant failures of launching missiles; the North authorized two failed missile launches back in April of this year. With past failures, it leads me to believe the country is basically incompetent overall. I am aware that we’ve seen their ruthless fighting before back in the Korean War; however, when it comes to overseas attacks, I struggle to take North Korea seriously. It could be the ridiculous portrayal of Kim Jong-Un that American media has put out, but I’m not convinced of their “powerful” role.
When Trump received criticism for his comments, he responded by asking if his comments were even tough enough. Trump believed that he could have made even more menacing threats than before. To ensure he got the last word, Trump announced that North Korea “better get their act together, or they’re going to be in trouble like few nations ever have been in trouble in this world.”
Jong-Un was probably shaking in his boots after hearing that, with it being so terrifying and all. Even though I don’t agree with the way Trump handles this scenario, I also don’t agree with the common ranting about him on social media. The majority of people respond with rash statements on Twitter about how Trump is the worst. I get it; you’re angsty. But maybe side with your own country in this situation, considering there are now nuclear bombs involved.
Though this is a situation that could end badly (but probably won’t), both the President and American citizens should continue to take these threats seriously by giving them the proper amount of research and attention.
