I joined Eamonn Holmes of talkRADIO on Friday to discuss two political developments: the announcement of Donald Trump’s official visit to the UK in July and, more importantly, historic talks between the leaders of North and South Korea.
I put Trump in London in perspective: after 15 months, the UK Government — facing a series of questions over any State visit with honors for the controversial leader of its ally — has been able to arrange a low-key, brief (possibly less than 24 hours) stopover by Trump after the NATO summit in Brussels. There’s also pushback on the line of Trump supporters that any reaction to Trump is illegitimate — “given in the US that we talk about the right to free speech, I find the assertion that we can’t express concerns to be disturbing” — and consideration of how Trump’s fate will turn upon the state of the US economy and of the Russia investigation.
See also Podcasts: Trump is Coming to the UK — The Politics and the Protests
Then it’s on to the reality of the negotiations over North Korea’s future in east Asia and the international community. Clearing away the distracting line that Trump is responsible for the breakthrough — “The rooster says the sun comes up because he crows” — we look at the key factors from the ground up, including the perspectives of a nuclear-equipeed North Korea and South Korea and of a region that may be defining itself without referring back to Washington.
