White House Walks Back Trump’s Comment About Melania Knowing Kim Jong Un — Maybe He Was Thinking Of Ivanka?

Members of the mental health community and laypeople alike have speculated on what goes on in Donald Trump’s head. My take on it has always been that his mental landscape resembles a Hieronymus Bosch painting with shades of H.P. Lovecraft, which is to say — chaotic and disturbed? For openers?

In any event, demonstrable lies fall from this man’s lips like scales from a molting reptile. Today’s gaffe du jour was to tell reporters after the G-7 conference that Melania, “has gotten to know Kim Jong Un.” That’s quite a feat, considering she’s never met him — at least, not that anybody knows about. Needless to say, fact-checkers and reporters were all over this one like white on rice, so the White House was forced to say something. Interesting job Stephanie Grisham has: how to cover up Trump’s idiotic off-the-cuff comments, and spin them in such a manner that they sound 1. intentional and 2. reasonable.

UPDATE! “President Trump confides in his wife on many issues including the detailed elements of his strong relationship with Chairman Kim – and while the First Lady hasn’t met him, the President feels like she’s gotten to know him too.” Stephanie Grisham says in a statement. https://t.co/m3OzXMGh88

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) August 26, 2019

So, their pillow talk is so profound and detailed, that Melania feels that she’s (music please) “getting to know Un, getting to know all about Un…” That’s one theory. The other theory, is that he’s thinking about his wife-daughter, Ivanka, who has met Kim Jong Un, and who took it upon herself to play Stateswoman Barbie, at N. Korean Summit II, the sequel to N. Korean Summit I — both of them disasters. If anybody ever decides to make a movie out of these two debacles, call Irwin Allen. Here’s what happened, to refresh your recollection. New York Times:

On Sunday, Ms. Trump, the president’s elder daughter, used an impromptu meeting between her father and Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, to further slip into the role of unofficial spokeswoman and budding stateswoman for the Trump administration. With her husband, fellow senior adviser Jared Kushner, at her side, Ms. Trump delivered news interviews, posed for photos and met Mr. Kim.

Earlier in the day, Ms. Trump had repeated what her father has often said about dealing with the North: that it would be free of crippling sanctions and clear for an economic boom if Mr. Kim were to dismantle his nuclear program. Scant evidence suggests that Mr. Kim is taking the steps to do this, but on Sunday, two Trumps rewarded him with a visit.

“We are on the precipice of ushering in potentially a golden era for the Korean Peninsula,” Ms. Trump told Bloomberg News in the hours before her father took the historic step of crossing into the North. But by the time she emerged from a building designed for negotiations hours later, she only had one word for journalists about her encounter with North Korea. She called it “surreal.”

So, are you, sweetie. Watching you in action is definitely like an hallucination or a dream, a bad one. Her actions in Korea caused immediate blow back.

“Ivanka Trump is not on the National Security Council — she is not an adviser on the issues being discussed,” Michael A. McFaul, an ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, said of Ms. Trump’s presence. “So her presence undermines the professional look of the Trump delegation, both to other countries and to national security professionals in the Trump administration.”

This was in February, and you know what happened in late June in Osaka, at the G20 summit, where Nepotism Barbie attempted to amplify her photo op in North Korea and insinuate herself, once again, as stateswoman. That turned into an unqualified disaster, when Emmanuel Macron’s office released a video, showing Ivanka making a fool out of herself with Macron, Trudeau, May, and LeGarde. It went viral.

Ivanka Trump appears to be trying to get involved in a talk among Macron, May, Trudeau and Lagarde (IMF head).
The video is released by French Presidential palace. pic.twitter.com/TJ0LULCzyQ

— Parham Ghobadi (@ParhamGhobadi) June 29, 2019

In the clip, Ms. Trump seemed to be looking to find a place to jump into this diplomatic game of double Dutch. First Mrs. May spoke: “As soon as you charge them with that economic aspect of it, a lot of people start listening who otherwise wouldn’t listen.”

And then Ms. Trump jumped in: “And the same with the defense side of it, in terms of the whole business that’s been, sort of, male-dominated.”

Ms. Lagarde, who was standing next to the president’s daughter, swiveled her head and blinked several times as she listened.

Now, the sublime irony of this, is that before the G20, when Trump and Ivanka were in Korea, Trump was convinced that Ivanka would be the toast of the summit.

If the president has any concern about his daughter playing diplomat, it didn’t show on this trip: During a meeting for troops at a military base outside of Seoul, South Korea, the president introduced his daughter alongside Mike Pompeo, his secretary of state.

“She’s going to steal the show,” Mr. Trump said. “She’ll steal it.”

Glancing at his secretary of state and his daughter, Mr. Trump also offered his thoughts about her appearance: “Beauty and the beast, Mike,” he added.

Typical Trumpian logic, looks are going to triumph over brains, competence, experience, and skill. Not in the real world. But then Donald Trump has never lived there, so he wouldn’t know. In all events, Trump’s comments about Melania knowing Kim were undoubtedly a Freudian slip about Ivanka — who perhaps is as gaslighted by Kim as her father. They may both believe that they know Kim well, as Kim laughs his ass off, and keeps building his nuclear stockpile — which features missiles aimed at the United States. as we speak.

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