Donald Trump means different things to different people. To his core supporters, he’s the man who will make America great again. To his diehard opponents, he is a dangerous juvenile with authoritarian tendencies. Ultimately, these descriptions are secondary to how Trump sees himself: a tough, dealmaking Svengali who has the experience and power of persuasion to get a deal that is advantageous to himself and to the people he represents.
Democrats laugh and dismissively wave off that mindset as self-delusion. Even some Republicans would likely roll their eyes in private. Trump, of course, knows this too well – which is why his dalliance with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un this week is such a pivotal moment for his own sense of confidence as a leader.
To Trump, being the first sitting American president to shake hands with a North Korean despot is about much more than kicking off a diplomatic process to denuclearize the Hermit Kingdom.
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