Had former U.S. President Barack Obama “done a Trump” with North Korea — agreed to a summit with Kim Jong Un without requiring denuclearization first, secretly sent his secretary of state to Pyongyang, described Kim as “honorable,” canceled joint military exercises with South Korea, been prepared to consider pulling U.S. troops out of Korea — the right-wing establishment and populace would have branded him a traitor. President Donald Trump earned multiple nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize for the same — until his National Security Adviser John Bolton nearly cost him any chance of that treasured award.
Obama also lacked Trump's chutzpah to proclaim triumph in a deal in which he makes all the concessions. Trump sold the Plaza Hotel in 1995 for $75 million below its 1988 purchase price yet gloated he had put the new buyer "through the wringer and made a great deal."
Trump's base follows him like the pied piper of modern times. His cancellation of the Singapore summit, widely judged to be a case of self-harm, was described as "a fine example of ineptitude," a "debacle," "a train wreck foretold," that "handed the world's most brutal dictator a win." Then the unpredictable Trump reinstated it. Thus last year's nuclear brinksmanship with North Korea has been followed by summit brinksmanship as the world breathlessly awaits the next twist in the on-again-off-again summit.