This was published 4 years ago
Opinion
Trump-Kim meeting: Stunts and bombast in high-stakes reality show
David Crowe
Chief political correspondentDonald Trump has taken celebrity diplomacy to another astonishing level by strolling into a forbidden kingdom to meet “little rocket man” Kim Jong-un.
Trump has built his political career on an outrageous ability to get attention for moments that are easily dismissed as stunts.
President Donald Trump, left, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone.Credit: AP
This is politics for the age of reality television. The star gets the audience talking, wins friends and enemies in equal measure and somehow thrives while others are voted out. The spotlight is its own reward.
Tweeting an invitation to Kim, and then meeting the North Korean leader at a military checkpoint, adds to the drama.
White House Senior Advisors Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.Credit: AP
The cost of the show is yet to be tallied. Trump has bombast but Vladimir Putin has cunning, Xi Jinping has patience and Kim has guile. The North Korean leader will shake hands on a deal and render it meaningless within moments.
Even so, Trump’s brief walk into North Korea might do some good – and Australia may be one country to benefit.
Trump was one of the leaders who spoke to Scott Morrison at the G20 summit in Osaka about the unknown fate of Alek Sigley, the Australian student who has disappeared from university in Pyongyang.
The Prime Minister also spoke to leaders from Japan and South Korea about the search for this young man.
Could Trump’s meeting with Kim improve relations with this rogue state and persuade its leader to send Sigley home? It is impossible to be sure.
Trump seems to want to befriend Kim despite the fate of American student Otto Warmbier, who died two years ago after returning from North Korea in a coma.
What are the dividends from Trump’s approach? He and Xi have escalated a trade war that has cut global growth.
He cosies up to Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and jokes with Putin, not long after the Russian leader declared Western liberal values to be obsolete.
The cost is mounting over time. On this reality channel, every program is pay-per-view.
People watch the historic meeting on a television screen.Credit: AP