Left, from KNS/AFP (Un), right, by Scott Olson (Trump), both from Getty Images.
If you weren’t worried before about the ever-growing threat of a Donald Trump presidency, his recent endorsement from the North Korean state media should give you pause. On Tuesday, the official media outlet for the repressive communist country published an editorial that praises Trump for his foreign policy and labels the former reality-TV star a “wise politician,” The New York Timesreports.
The editorial—which appeared in DPRK Today just days after President Barack Obamatold reporters that foreign leaders are “rattled” by Trump—undoubtedly will fuel existing concerns that if elected, the brash presidential hopeful could effectively dismantle decades’ worth of U.S. foreign policy.
Published on Tuesday, the column applauds Trump for statements he made in March regarding the American presence in South Korea. At the time, the billionaire argued that Seoul doesn’t pay enough for U.S. troops stationed in the country, which he threatened to remove should he make it to the Oval Office. That pronouncement earned Trump DPRK Today’s seal of approval as a “prescient presidential candidate,” Reuters reports, unlike the “rough-talking, screwy, ignorant candidate they say he is.” Russian president Vladimir Putin has similarly praised Trump as a “bright and talented” leader.
The author of the post, Han Young-muk, also took a swing at Hillary Clinton, urging American voters not to vote for the “dull” candidate and opt for Trump instead, reports NK News. The Guardianreports that Han, who is identified as a Chinese-North Korean academic, also welcomed a meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un, an idea the former proposed in an interview with Reuters in May. The presidential candidate said that he would “have no problem” speaking with the dictator—a remark that raised the eyebrows of politicians on both sides of the aisle. During the 2008 general election, both Clinton and John McCain criticized then senator Obama for similarly proposing direct talks with Iran about its nuclear policy.
It comes as no surprise that after building a campaign on outrageous statements and threats to the status quo, including his declared war on the press, Trump might cozy up to the pariah state. Trump supporterDennis Rodman, after all, went to North Korea. Why not Donald Trump?
The 15 Most Cringeworthy Moments of the 2016 Election
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Jeb Bush’s “Please clap” moment
The long, slow collapse of Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign reached its nadir with two sublimely sad words. Sure, he might not be great at putting on hoodies and he probably should have taken longer than 45 seconds to respond to some random man’s email about football while campaigning for president, but when the awkward former governor, browbeaten and broken by Donald Trump, asked an underwhelmed crowd in New Hampshire to “please clap,” you really felt bad for the lesser-known Bush.
Marco Rubio’s dick joke backfires
Marco Rubio may never have been first in a national poll during the G.O.P. primary, but he was the first to make a dick joke. At a campaign rally in Virginia in February, the Florida senator was number one in middle-school humor when he commented on the size of Donald Trump’s hands and hinted that the real estate mogul was not well-endowed. Unlike Trump, who never would have apologized, Rubio later said he was ashamed, and dropped out of the running two weeks later.
Nobody liked Ted Cruz—not even his own daughter
In his 2016 presidential campaign, Ted Cruz got snubbed. He got snubbed by voters. He got snubbed by his fellow candidates. He got snubbed by his colleagues, who joked you could get away with murdering the Texan in plain sight if the trial took place in the Senate. He even got snubbed by his daughter Caroline when he tried to hug the 7-year-old.
Lincoln Chafee blames his dead father
In the first Democratic debate, when asked why he was attacking Hillary Clinton’s record on Wall Street but himself voted in favor of repealing the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, Lincoln Chaffee gave the death of his father and that it was his first vote as excuses. When Anderson Cooper pressed further, asking if he didn’t understand the bill, the former senator replied weakly, “I think you are being a little rough.”
When Donald Trump got attacked by a bald eagle
Hitchcock had his crows. Apollo had his ravens. Our forefathers saw fit to send us a bald eagle to attack Donald Trump during a photoshoot for Time magazine.
Jim Webb brags about killing a guy
In his all-too-brief presidential run, war veteran and highly ambivalent Democratic candidate Jim Webb never killed at a debate, but he did brag about killing a guy in Vietnam, barely containing an odd, self-satisfied smile. He dropped out one week later.
When Ben Carson shamed a child
Ben Carson, attempting to prove some kind of point about how anyone could grow up to be a neurosurgeon, like him, asked a room full of fifth-graders to single out the worst student in their class. They all pointed to the same kid, delighting the cruel-hearted reporters in attendance and presumably scarring the boy for life.
That time Martin O’Malley held an event and only one voter showed up
Martin O’Malley performed a cover of Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” for the ladies of The View and got less than 1percent of the vote in Iowa, and yet the saddest moment of his campaign came when only one voter showed up to a campaign stop in the Hawkeye state. The lone man left uncommitted.
Chris Christie gets taken hostage
One week after shamelessly endorsing Donald Trump, New Jersey governor Chris Christie appeared to be having regrets. Standing behind and to the right of Trump as he delivered a victory speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after a series of Super Tuesday wins, Christie’s perturbed “help I have been taken hostage” face and unsettling silence won the Internet’s heart . . . and our pity.
Bernie Sanders botches race relations
In his first of two rallies in Seattle at the beginning of August, Bernie Sanders never took the stage after #BlackLivesMatter protestors hopped the barricades and usurped his scheduled speech. When the protesters made no moves to hand over the mic, Sanders’s campaign effectively shut down the event. Sanders never spoke to the crowd and damaged his relationship with the movement.
That time Ben Carson missed his cue to go onstage at the debate
Ben Carson, an Ambien taken human form, often appeared dazed and confused during the Republican primary, making nonsensical statements about everything from ancient Egypt to how life is like fruit salad. No moment seemed to capture the somnambulant candidate better than the beginning of an ABC debate in February, when Carson missed his cue to take the stage. It took the retired neurosurgeon roughly a minute to get to his podium, but it felt like an eternity.
When Bernie Sanders shushed Hillary
While it doesn’t hold a candle to antics we’ve seen from the G.O.P. camp this election cycle, Bernie Sanders was responsible for the most elementary moment in the Democratic primary when he shushed Hillary Clinton during a debate.
Carly Fiorina’s sad seven-day V.P. run
Carly Fiorina’s short White House bid was followed by an even shorter vice presidential run. In her seven-day-long campaign for the number-two job, not only did her running mate Ted Cruz fail to help her when she fell off a stage, but she will also go down in history as one half of the world’s worst hand-holding duo.
Hillary’s terrible Goldman Sachs answer
Hillary Clinton was asked to release the transcripts of three paid speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs, for which she pocketed a total of $675,000. The presidential hopeful continuously refused to do so, saying she would when everyone else released transcripts of their private speeches. Her lowest moment? Defending the price tag by exclaiming, “that’s what they paid me!”
And Donald Trump proves you can still win a campaign based on bigotry
Donald Trump built a campaign on fear-mongering, racism, sexism and xenophobia, using social media and manipulation of the media to spread a wholly un-American message. The former reality TV star and real-estate mogul now has raked in more than the 1,237 required delegates to clinch the Republican nomination. The triumph of Trumpism may be the saddest 2016 moment of all.
