Donald Trump unwittingly reveals he’s been confusing Kim Jong-Un with a different world leader all along

| 11:54 pm EDT October 1, 2017
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For months, Donald Trump has periodically hurled empty threats and juvenile insults at North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, in an attempt at distracting from his own numerous scandals and failings. Trump has tried to push the unstable Kim front and center on the world stage by calling him “Rocket Man” and threatening to annihilate his entire country. But Trump’s latest tweet unwittingly reveals that he has no idea who Kim Jong-Un even is.

On Sunday evening, Trump tweeted “Being nice to Rocket Man hasn’t worked in 25 years, why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won’t fail.” Here’s the trouble: Kim Jong-Un is in his early to mid thirties. All you have to do is take a look at a picture of him in order to see this. Trump just asserted that Kim has been in power for twenty-five years, suggesting he took over the country when he was around nine years old. We know that Trump didn’t merely misspeak or make a typo here, as he went on to namecheck twenty-five years worth of U.S. Presidents whom he believes have been dealing with Kim Jong-Un.

Kim Jong-Un’s picture has been plastered everywhere across the news over the past months. Even Trump’s preferred propaganda outlets such as Fox News and Breitbart have posted photos of Kim Jong-Un. How is it possible that Trump has looked at this guy, who’s believed to be thirty-four years old, and concluded that he’s been in power for a quarter century?

Donald Trump appears to believe he’s dealing with Kim Jong-Il, the former North Korean leader who died in 2011. President Clinton and President Bush were dealing with Kim Jong-Il. Trump is instead dealing with Kim Jong-Un, yet despite the hints all around him, he can’t figure it out. This isn’t just embarrassing. It’s crucial, because Kim Jong-Un has an entirely different demeanor than Kim Jong-Il did. Approaching Jong-Un, as if he were Jong-Il, is a recipe for disaster. No wonder Trump’s North Korea strategy is failing.