How Donald Trump blew it on North Korea
Donald Trump ridiculed Hillary Clinton for her supposed mishandling of classified emails on the campaign trail. Unfortunately and rather ironically, Trump’s own carelessness has made him a national security risk as president. He is likely compromised going into the high-stakes summit with North Korea’s Kim Jung-un that is officially back on.
When it comes to classified materials, Trump is a braggadocio blabbermouth. He told the Russians about highly-sensitive information from Israel with regards to their Syrian operations. He then upped the Syria-leaking ante by telling donors at a fundraiser about a top-secret battle between U.S. troops and Russian mercenaries. It is hard to imagine that when Trump travels to Mar-a-Lago his loose lips problem in social settings doesn’t come back to bite him. Any curious nearby bystander is probably able to hear things they shouldn’t.
But Trump’s biggest mistake was confiding in the odious Sebastian Gorka, who never received a security clearance, about our cyber capabilities to interfere with North Korea’s missile program. Gorka, like his former boss, clearly doesn’t understand the concept of a closely-guarded secret. The covert program was never publicly acknowledged. Yet, soon after he was forced out of the White House in August 2017, Gorka went on Fox News to divulge that the United States had a hand in some of North Korea’s failed missile launches.
Not coincidentally, after that revelation North Korea (probably with Russian and/or Chinese help) became more successful with their missile launches, which now have the potential to hit the U.S. territories like Guam, or Hawaii or even the West Coast. Making matters worse, Trump has rebuffed efforts to make his cell phone more secure. Low and behold, a report just came out about cell phone eavesdropping devices being found near the White House and other sensitive locations. While Trump harbors delusions of grandeur about a Nobel Peace Prize-securing deal in which North Korea denuclearizes for some economic assistance, North Korea is committed to a less dramatic outcome.
Could they be listening to the Donald Trump phone calls, especially when he spends time in his personal residence calling friends to ruminate about his job? I sure hope not, but if that has happened, Hillary Clinton is owed a big apology, because Trump is actually doing what he fantasized she was doing, but on much grander scale.
J.H. Norton is a communications professional, life-long Democrat, and married father of two boys living in Washington, D.C.