‘It’s Not What You Would Think’

From a Wall Street Journal report on Trump’s meeting last week with President Xi Jinping of China:

He said they hit it off during their first discussion. Mr. Trump said he told his Chinese counterpart he believed Beijing could easily take care of the North Korea threat. Mr. Xi then explained the history of China and Korea, Mr. Trump said.

“After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy,” Mr. Trump recounted. “I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power” over North Korea,” he said. “But it’s not what you would think.”

What’s striking about this isn’t that Trump was completely ignorant about China’s relationship with North Korea. That’s not surprising at all. What’s striking is that Trump is so — to borrow Josh Marshall’s phrase — militantly ignorant that he’s not embarrassed to admit this. He’s a laughingstock around the world.

★ Friday, 14 April 2017