POSSIBLE DELAY – AT 3:46 P.M. ET:   The president said today that the June 12th summit with the leader of North Korea might be delayed.  You could almost sense the jubilation in the Democratic Party, which passionately hopes for Mr. Trump to fail.  From CNBC:

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that there's a "substantial" chance that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "may not work out" for June.

Trump made the remark while he met with Moon Jae-in, South Korea's president, for pivotal discussions ahead of the American president's planned meeting with the North Korean dictator.

"Whether or not it happens, you'll be knowing pretty soon," Trump told reporters at the White House.

He also declined to say whether he has spoken with North Korea's leader.

The summit is scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, which is widely viewed as a neutral site. Yet doubts continue to grow about whether the meeting will actually take place. Trump's remarks Tuesday were the strongest indication yet that the summit might not happen as planned.

Last week, North Korea said it would reconsider whether to hold the meeting after abruptly canceling talks with South Korea amid joint military drills with the U.S. on the Korean Peninsula.

The communist dictatorship also took issue with Trump's national security advisor, John Bolton, who suggested using a denuclearization model similar to one used with North African country Libya. The nation's dictator at the time, Moammar Gadhafi, agreed to give up nuclear weapons in exchange for relaxed U.S. sanctions. Eventually, however, the U.S. supported a violent overthrow of Gadhafi.

North Korea called any attempt to impose a Libya-style arrangement on the country "awfully sinister." Trump has said, though, that the "Libyan model isn't a model that we have at all."

COMMENT:  The president is playing it very cool, making it clear that the June 12th date is not the end of history.  The sneering immediately began on CNN after his comments, but I think Americans understand that this will be a long process, with setbacks as well as advances.  If the meeting doesn't happen at all, expect the U.S. to ramp up military pressure and deterrent power.  That's the Trump way.  The Obama way was to collapse as quickly as possible.

May 22, 2018