Kim Jong Un May be Lucy Van Pelt, But Donald J. Trump Isn't Charlie Brown!

By Rich Kozlovich

I was invited to join an eclectic e-mail group some time back and one of the participants sent this cartoon to me.

I'm sharing because it demonstrates Trump walk away from the table demonstrates real geopolitical smarts.

For years we saw cartoons of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown, swearing she would hold it each time, and yet, each and every time Charlie Brown tried to kick it, she would pull it out and poor Charlie would fall flat on his back, and Lucy taking great delight in his fall.

• In one cartoon Lucy tells him there are always last minute changes in the program to justify her pulling out the football.
• In another she tells him this is his lot for the rest of his life.  Sound familiar? 

It should sound familiar.  That's how Kim and many of America's enemies have worked "the deal" with American Presidents.  But that day is over!  Trump holds all the cards.  He knows he holds the cards.  He's willing to play those cards.  In pinochle it's called trumping the trick.  And yes, that was a pun!

Up until this point America's enemies were playing chess while America's leaders were playing checkers. Well, America isn't playing checkers any longer.  Not only is Trump playing chess, he can play multiple boards at the same time, and he's capable of winning on all of them.

The media and the left, and probably many of the RINO's, declared this meeting to be a failure, but was the meeting a failure, or was the failure in their own personal lack of understanding, and yes, lack of guts?

Let's face it, they just don't get it and they don't like the fact Trump isn't a push over like Carter, the Bush's, Clinton and the worst of the lot, Obama, along with the "foggy bottom" State Department officials who were, and still are, saps for leftist dictators.

As I've watched this develop I keep coming back to the one singular force responsible for this problem - the Clintons - and the second dumbest President of the United States - Jimmy Carter.  It was the Clintons who gave Korea the technology to get to where they are now, and for an agreement they violated on day one.  A deal similar to what the dumbest President of the United States gave Iran.  And the Bush's did nothing of any value to stop it.

Fortunately, the American public does get it.  There's a retired GM auto worker and union man who is part of my retired McDonalds breakfast cabal who was thrilled Trump walked away.  He gets it!

Trump has been making successful deals his whole life and getting a bad deal in business is simply unacceptable.  He views a bad deal for Americans in foreign policy unacceptable also.

So many of these politicians will take a bad deal and try to convince the public it not only was a good deal, but they should be grateful they got any deal at all.  Professional politicians and the Tallyrands at the State Department need deals or they're not considered successful. 

Trump plays by a different set of rules.  In his world, the real world, if he strikes a bad deal it costs him personally, not the American public.  He's taken that mentality into his foreign policy. 

I can understand that Kim might have thought all of these investigations the Democrats are promoting would weaken Trump's resolve and make him give in to North Korean demands lifting the sanctions for promises Kim never intends to keep in order to have good press. The same kind of "promises" he made and didn't keep to previous administrations, and did so without suffering any adverse consequences.

They tout the idea that since Kim is mad, so we had better be careful and give him what he wants or he'll attack South Korea, Japan or even the U.S. 

Baloney!  With Trump that kind of thinking is a serious error in judgment. 

If North Korea attacks the South, Japan or the U.S., North Korea will cease to exist, especially if he uses a nuclear device.  Little Kim may seem mad with the executions of his family members, and all his public blubbering, but he knows that if he attacks anyone, he's not going to exist any longer, and that's his real concern - it's all about Kim and maintaining his personal indulgences.  All the while his people starve. 

We're not going to attack, invade or occupy North Korea either.  Trump understands that America as the world's policeman was a geopolitical paradigm created by Bretton Woods.  The Bretton Woods era is over, and once we understand that, and know that Trump understands that, we can much more clearly understand why Trump does what he does. 

Now Kim not only didn't get what he wanted, he now has to figure out how to get Trump back. He's lost face, he's lost leverage, and he knows it.

Now Kim has to face continued restrictions that will impact trade with surrounding nations, including China and Russia, neither of whom can afford too many trade restrictions without facing economic collapse.  Neither of these two countries are natural capital generators, and neither of them have been able to develop their own internal markets that would allow them to survive without access to foreign trading markets.

We need to get this:  Kim may be Lucy, but Trump isn't Charlie Brown.