Irrational behavior from world leaders can be effective.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory

Not saying this is going on necessary, but from the game theoretic point of view it makes sense.

M.A.D.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction

Trump has been talking to Kissinger quite a bit.

Is it possible he's not highly irrational at all and you're projecting your own fears onto him?

It is possible, but extremely unlikely given the evidence.

They said the same thing about Reagan, and he brought down the Soviets in a similar way.

It seems that no amount of evidence is enough for some people.

Reagan didn't: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/09/le... The SU was brought down by Gorbachev, economic stagnation, the Afghan war and alcoholism -- not Reagan.

Ya Reagan just took credit for it. They took down the wall 2 years after his "tear down this wall speech." It's a myth.

Reagan didn't. The Soviet Union crashed their own empire. This myth of him being a fiscal conservative while outspending the ussr on misguided military programs is something that needs to go away.

You mean evidence like this?

"South Korea’s Foreign Minister tells me in Seoul that “clearly credit goes to President Trump” for bringing North Korea to the negotiating table."

https://twitter.com/camanpour/status/989423486438379520

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Some more evidence, this time of fear and projection: "Why Kanye West's Pro-Trump Tweets Are a Real Threat"

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/why-kanye-wests-pro-...

This is the secret genius hypothesis. I don't give it much credit, considering how the administration is flailing on almost every other front. It is possible that all of this was Trump being very clever. But it is as easily explained by him being an impulsive fool, and that explains all the rest as well. But if he keeps on making big foreign policy gains like this, then I may have to reevaluate.

FWIW, this definitely caused me to up my estimation of him. It went from "absolutely dismal," to "very bad." I'll also note that it's just a bit too early to tell whether this will ultimately result in a good outcome. Shaking hands is a big step. But actions talk louder than photo ops.

If you ignore his tweeting, which frankly, is embarrassing more than it's informative, and get your news from somewhere other than CNN, you might realize that Trump's actually getting a lot of good stuff done.

Trump confronted Kim, which was different, whether you think that was rational or not really depends on whether you think that was dangerous or stupid or a reasonable response to someone threatening the US.

It won't, because America has a habit of doing American things whenever it has too much economic anxiety.

What are these "American things" that we do when we have economic anxiety?

Electing our first black president after the great financial crisis?

Bailing Europe out of WW2 after the depression?

> Let's hope Trump weakening the US politically and economically plays out well for the world.

Well even CNN gave him credit for getting the two Koreas to talk and possibly end the 70 year old war:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/26/world/korea-summit-kang-kyung...

"Clearly, credit goes to President Trump," Kang told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in Seoul. "He's been determined to come to grips with this from day one."

So in this case political "weakness" does seem to play well for the world?