Trump's meeting with Kim Jong Un could actually work

History suggests direct talks could be a good thing. But only if Trump plays his cards right.

Demonstrators in Trump and Kim masks
(Image credit: ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images)

In a typically bizarre sequence of events late last week, President Trump hastily agreed to direct, one-on-one nuclear talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He would be the first American president ever to meet directly with a North Korean leader.

It was a stunning development, especially after Trump spent his entire term railing theatrically against his tyrannical counterpart, threatening "fire and fury," and repeatedly contradicting his own secretary of state about how to best move forward. And the shock of his abrupt move had barely set in when Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders more or less walked back the whole initiative on Saturday by saying that "denuclearization" — the intended outcome of the negotiations — was instead a precondition for the talks. That caveat is almost certainly a deal-breaker for the North Koreans. Yet because the only thing the president reliably sticks to is his morning Fox News briefing, no one at this point knows whether this summit will actually happen or not.

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David Faris

David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. He is a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Indy Week.