May 29, 2018 4 min read

Well, it looks like The Great Dealmaker dealt himself a bad hand.

Mr. Trump frequently berates his predecessors (Obama, Bush, and Clinton) for their lack of deal-making skills at bringing Korean strongman Kim Jong Un to heel.

It turns out he’s no better than them in that regard.

Oh, the stage had been set for that June 12 summit in which Kim and Trump would meet; smile; shake hands; dance together to the strains of “You Light Up My Life,” and then say goodbye to North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.

That’s just not going to happen.

First, Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, publicly urged North Korea to follow Libya’s lead in doing away with its nukes.

The North Koreans bristled when they learned of Bolton’s statement.

They’re fully aware of how Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi agreed to dissolve Libya’s nuclear weapons program in 2003.

But the North Koreans are also fully aware of the fact that Gaddafi’s overthrow, and eventual death in 2011, had been hastened by his agreement to denuclearize.

Besides, North Korea’s nuclear capabilities are far more advanced than was Libya’s. Kim expects that North Korea should be on equal footing with other countries that have nuclear weapons.

So, it’s understandable that Kim Jong Un wouldn’t be pleased having members of the Trump administration hint that they want North Korea to follow Libya’s lead.

Of course, even with the knowledge that North Korea’s feathers had been ruffled by Bolton’s reference to Libya, last Monday, Vice President Pence appeared on Fox News and he ruffled them even more.

“This will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn’t make a deal,” Pence said.

Somebody forgot to tell Pence that putting Libya and Kim Jong Un into the same sentence might cause a sharp response.

It did.

That’s because Fox News can be seen around the world.

By last Thursday morning, North Korea’s vice minister of foreign affairs, Choe Son Hui, sharply attacked Pence and his statements.

Choe called Pence a “political dummy” who had been offensive to his country by recklessly using “unbridled and impudent” comments.

Those words, in turn, angered Trump enough to call off that planned summit.

Trump already knew that North Korea was on the verge of calling it off, anyway.

Trump, with his nuclear-powered ego, rushed to be the first to cancel.

He sent a tersely written letter to Kim Jong Un Last Thursday morning.

One in which he claimed that North Korea had shown “tremendous anger and open hostility,” so, “Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place.”

Mysteriously, he didn’t misspell a single word in that letter.

That, in itself, is something of an achievement since his Twitter posts are littered with malformed sentences and misspellings.

So, the summit is officially dead (for now).

And this sets the stage for another round of insults between Washington and Pyongyang.

Trump — The Great Dealmaker — will have to wait to make some kind of deal that bears fruit.

He’s great at posturing, but, so far, despite his frequent claims, he’s not negotiated much of anything of value since he’s been in office.

He will eventually learn that bluster and preening aren’t the only tools needed to find the terms of an agreement, especially when dealing with somebody as mercurial as Kim Jong Un.

By mandating that North Korea completely abandon its nuclear program as a prerequisite to serious negotiations, Mr. Trump now sees he is no better at deal making as those presidents who’ve tried, but failed, to normalize relations with North Korea in the past.

Perhaps this is just a mere bump in the road.

There’s still time for Kim and Trump to mend fences and come to terms that will enable the entire world to breathe easier.

That wouldn’t be a bad thing.

But as it stands, as that 1960’s song by Motown’s Marvelettes, “The Hunter (Donald Trump) Got Captured by the Game.”

Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.