President Trump is not afraid to sit across the table from anyone. Asked about North Korea at his news conference at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta on Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “The president has repeatedly said, as he did in his first term, he’ll talk to anybody.”
“The president doesn’t view talks, doesn’t view meeting with someone as a concession,” Rubio said. “I know in traditional foreign policy, meeting with someone or inviting someone to something is viewed as a concession that somehow legitimizes them.”
Trump sees it differently. “I think the president’s perspective is if North Korea and Kim Jong Un is prepared to talk with the United States about issues that are of concern to us and concern to our allies like South Korea, he’d be open to doing it,” Rubio said.
Rubio was clear that nothing is on the calendar. “Nothing has been scheduled. I don’t have anything to announce in regards to that today,” he said, but the President “is prepared for such a meeting. They had two such meetings in his first administration. I think if something productive could come from such talks, he’d be open to doing it again.”
Strength first, then talks on America’s terms. That is the Trump way, and it is why the world takes his calls.
