With a North Korean newspaper calling Donald Trump ‘wise’, the reputation of the presumptive Republican nominee who has been leading a verbal rampage against so many — from Mexicans to journalists — has finally been proved. It would be the only newspaper in the world to have lauded the trash-talking Trump and the only source of praise for the presidential hopeful.
Calling Trump wise is like upending the meaning of the word which in public life is used for people with a learned worldview and a grasp of public policy. Indeed those who can participate in the race for the most coveted position in the world ought to be wise. But to use the word for the likes of Donald Trump would be a travesty of wisdom.
It is not surprising that a paper from the isolated state has been unwise enough to praise an individual who is most undeserving of such adulation. What can be expected of a press that regularly heaps praise on an autocratic ruler given to political purges.
During his campaign, Trump has offered to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. He also promised to withdraw American troops from the Korean peninsula. Washington has troops in South Korea, a close ally and rival of the North. The two Koreas are separated by the 38th parallel and have been technically at war in the absence of a ceasefire.
The press, like everything else, is tightly controlled in North Korea and the DPRK Today editorial praising the business tycoon could be closer to government policy. Though Pyongyang may not have directed the paper to appreciate Trump’s mental faculties, it is clear that the official stance wouldn’t be far removed from what the publication said. On Tuesday, the bumbling Trump railed against journalists at a press conference. He said that the press has been picking on him and pointing out his mistakes. What else would the real estate tycoon expect the press to do? It cannot sing paeans for him when all that Trump can do is court controversies. The papers will not give him glowing headlines if he growls at a journalist and calls him a sleaze before his colleagues at a press conference.
Trump and North Korea embody a strange symbolism. The Republican contender and the reclusive state seem to live on the fringes of a world order given to common sense and the concept of justice. Though hundreds of thousands on the globe have been wronged, no state or individual stands blatantly against the world order as do Trump and Pyongyang.
With a North Korean newspaper calling Donald Trump ‘wise’, the reputation of the presumptive Republican nominee who has been leading a verbal rampage against so many — from Mexicans to journalists — has finally been proved. It would be the only newspaper in the world to have lauded the trash-talking Trump and the only source of praise for the presidential hopeful.
Calling Trump wise is like upending the meaning of the word which in public life is used for people with a learned worldview and a grasp of public policy. Indeed those who can participate in the race for the most coveted position in the world ought to be wise. But to use the word for the likes of Donald Trump would be a travesty of wisdom.
It is not surprising that a paper from the isolated state has been unwise enough to praise an individual who is most undeserving of such adulation. What can be expected of a press that regularly heaps praise on an autocratic ruler given to political purges.
During his campaign, Trump has offered to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. He also promised to withdraw American troops from the Korean peninsula. Washington has troops in South Korea, a close ally and rival of the North. The two Koreas are separated by the 38th parallel and have been technically at war in the absence of a ceasefire.
The press, like everything else, is tightly controlled in North Korea and the DPRK Today editorial praising the business tycoon could be closer to government policy. Though Pyongyang may not have directed the paper to appreciate Trump’s mental faculties, it is clear that the official stance wouldn’t be far removed from what the publication said. On Tuesday, the bumbling Trump railed against journalists at a press conference. He said that the press has been picking on him and pointing out his mistakes. What else would the real estate tycoon expect the press to do? It cannot sing paeans for him when all that Trump can do is court controversies. The papers will not give him glowing headlines if he growls at a journalist and calls him a sleaze before his colleagues at a press conference.
Trump and North Korea embody a strange symbolism. The Republican contender and the reclusive state seem to live on the fringes of a world order given to common sense and the concept of justice. Though hundreds of thousands on the globe have been wronged, no state or individual stands blatantly against the world order as do Trump and Pyongyang.
