Donald Trump was reportedly so bored when he arrived in Singapore ahead of his summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un that the meeting was almost “upended” altogether.
According to a stunning new report from The Washington Post, “[T]he most intense drama surrounding President Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came not across the negotiating table, but in the days and hours leading up to Tuesday’s historic meeting.”
More from the report:
After arriving in Singapore on Sunday, an antsy and bored Trump urged his aides to demand that the meeting with Kim be pushed up by a day — to Monday — and had to be talked out of altering the long-planned and carefully negotiated summit date on the fly, according to two people familiar with preparations for the event.
“We’re here now,” the president said, according to the people. “Why can’t we just do it?”
Trump’s impatience, coupled with a tense staff-level meeting between the two sides on Sunday, left some aides fearful that the entire summit might be in peril.
Trump only stuck to the schedule so he would get more media coverage
According to The Washington Post story, what ultimately convinced Trump to stick to the original schedule was the fact that he would get more media attention.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Trump that he “might sacrifice wall-to-wall television coverage of his summit if he abruptly moved the long-planned date to Monday in Singapore, which would be Sunday night in the United States.”
A responsible U.S. president would have used his (or her) pre-summit downtime to prepare for the high-stakes nuclear summit. But Trump, who has never cared for the work aspect of his job, threw a tantrum and put the whole meeting in jeopardy – all because he had a day to spare.
This is what happens when an unfit, reality TV game show host is put in charge.
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