Message from Congressman Adam Schiff – on June 12, President Trump pronounced that “there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea,” and that “everyone can now feel much safer than the day” he took office.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel safer. Far from it.
We all want diplomacy to succeed, because open lines of communication are always preferable to the possibility of nuclear war. Yet, after freezing joint military exercises, potentially lifting sanctions, and showering the North Korean dictator with over-the-top praise, all Trump walked away from the summit with was vague promises from a North Korean regime that can’t be trusted to keep its word. That’s not a great deal for America, from the self-styled dealmaker.
It is also far from the only evidence that Trump is much better at marketing himself than doing what’s best for the country. Just last week, he announced a deal to save the Chinese telecom firm ZTE, despite repeated violations of U.S. sanctions and being named as a major cybersecurity threat by our intelligence agencies. Trump prioritized Chinese jobs over our national security.
I wish the list ended there, but of course it doesn’t. While hyping vague promises from North Korea, which turned out to be less than what the North Koreans have offered in the past, Trump withdrew from a nuclear deal that was actually working, the Iran Deal. He withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accords. He spent the weekend fighting with our closest allies in the G7, complaining that Russia wasn’t invited to the meeting, while hurling insults at Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
If the President can get along with Kim Jong Un, but not Justin Trudeau, something is seriously wrong. He is alienating our allies, praising our adversaries and bargaining away our security based on potentially empty promises. It is more important than ever — and while we still have allies left — that we take back the Congress in November and show the rest of the world that America still values its friends.
WE NEED TO SHOW THE WORLD AMERICA HAS VALUES.