North Korea, the wildcard of the world, flexed its muscles again by conducting another ballistic missile test on Saturday, February 11, at 6 p.m. EST. President Donald Trump, however, didn’t seem to even notice. He was too busy playing golf with the Japanese Prime Minister and tweeting about how unfairly Nordstrom was treating his daughter, Ivanka Trump.
North Korea’s missile test was no small issue. Initial reports indicate that it was an intermediate-range missile, capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam. If true, this would be a massive escalation of international proportions: North Korea constantly claims that it wants to start missile warfare with the U.S. Now they can.
But Donald Trump had bigger things on his plate. Like playing golf and complaining that Nordstrom had dropped daughter Ivanka’s fashion brand from their stores.
Having a great time hosting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the United States! https://t.co/Fvjsac89qS https://t.co/OupKmRRuTI pic.twitter.com/smGrnWakWQ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 11, 2017
I am so proud of my daughter Ivanka. To be abused and treated so badly by the media, and to still hold her head so high, is truly wonderful!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 11, 2017
This is, of course, the same Donald Trump that has claimed to have the security of the United States at the top of his mind. He has constantly claimed that his Muslim travel ban was because immigrants committed terrorism once they were in the United States. He has constantly claimed that the wall on the Mexican border was to keep “bad hombres” out of the U.S., where they commit crimes.
But now that there’s an actual, real threat to U.S. soil, that bravado has evaporated. In a joint statement with Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, Trump said nothing about the missile tests:
“America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100%.”
After insisting for so long that President Barack Obama was “spineless” and “ineffective” in the face of international threats, Trump didn’t even condemn North Korea’s missile testing. Last September, when North Korea tested ballistic missiles, Obama had responded by threatening tighter sanctions. This time, the response was that Mark Cuban wasn’t smart enough to run for president:
I know Mark Cuban well. He backed me big-time but I wasn't interested in taking all of his calls.He's not smart enough to run for president!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2017
So much for promising to protect the U.S. from North Korean missiles.
North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017
Featured image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.
