A New Tune In The Repertoire?

Thread on the latest statements being vomited out.

During interview with @BretBaier, Trump says he hopes to get US troops out of South Korea as soon as possible, indicates he's not happy with fact that "we don't get paid fully for that military" presence there. pic.twitter.com/Jb2ORhI97C

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 13, 2018

He's said this kind of stuff all along. His line on Xi is also a rerun: "He's an incredible guy. You know, essentially president for life. That's pretty good."

Exactly the same as his previous line about Putin is here applied to Kim: "A lot of other people have done some really bad things"...

Loathesome it is, but always full of the same tells. In particular, there's Trump's recognition that his interlocutors expect him to endorse such conventions as, "dictatorship is bad." He pays quick and unconvincing lip service, before moving on to how much the dictator under discussion excites him.

But this one seemed novel...

Trump claims, preposterously, that parents of Korean War veterans came up to him during the 2016 campaign and said, "when you can, we'd love our son to be brought back home -- you know, the remains."

The Korean War ended in 1953. pic.twitter.com/f4HEHZ22YM

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 13, 2018

Make that, centenarian parents. Who previously knew so many "thousands and thousands" of centenarians had attended his rage fests? Perhaps they were camouflaged in "Fuck your feelings," and "Trump that bitch" shirts.

At first I thought Trump sounded even more unhinged than usual, to have retroactively seized on "return of remains" as a rationale for meeting Kim. On second thought, I suspect the very concept of "The Korean War" suddenly prompted Trump to remember the war in Viet Nam, and particularly, the "POW/MIA" furor. Public rage was inflamed when remains of some casualties had not been returned, which was the case simply because bodies could not always be recovered from the jungle. Anger over this was fueled in the 1970s, Trump's formative period. Surely, he recalls the public emotion, and he must remember how politically useful claims of government conspiracy were.

Trump's Korean War arithmetic may be a howler, but his base will believe he's always planned to do something for families that traitor Obama refused.