South Koreans to Trump: No, Korea didn’t “used to be a part of China”

In fairness to Trump, he heard that directly from China’s president (or so he says). What was he supposed to do, be skeptical of Chinese nationalist propaganda?

If you can’t trust Xi Jinping to shoot straight with you about a western-allied country within China’s sphere of influence, who can you trust?

Politically, that’s a bit like idly observing that Crimea contains a lot of ethnic Russians. An alarming possibility, though: Maybe Xi didn’t say that to him. Maybe Trump simply misunderstood, and now, because he seems not to realize which details he should and shouldn’t share publicly about his discussions with China’s leader, South Korea’s leadership is left to wonder erroneously whether Beijing is planning to include them in its “one China” plans a few decades from now. More from the Telegraph:

If the South Koreans had any sort of troll game at all, they would have responded by claiming that Mexico’s president recently reminded them that the U.S. used to be part of Mexico. That would have been an amusing phone call between Trump and Pena Nieto.

As a Twitter pal said, what would make this even more darkly funny is if Trump started reminding everyone that China used to be a part of Japan. Does he really have no sense of the nationalist sensitivities in the region or how nervous U.S. allies there are about China’s growing power, especially after the White House ditched TPP? His tough talk towards China as a candidate might have reassured them but it’s been nothing but sunshine with Beijing since that phone call with Taiwan’s president. What looked like a looming “U.S. and Russia isolate China” long-term play by the White House during the transition increasingly looks more like a “U.S. and China isolate Russia” strategy. (Neither is likely to work, but still.) Imagine watching that play out in Tokyo or Seoul and suddenly finding Trump repeating Chinese talking points about the Korean peninsula.

Ah well. So long as he has an “armada” in the vicinity to help protect South Korea from the menace to the north, they’ll forgive him. Once they’re done forgiving him for BSing them about that armada, that is.

Dear Leader's Gaffs

“R-S-P-E-C-T.” (trying to quote franklin’s song)

“And finally, Bos, I just want to say thank you for Youkilis.” (after boston traded him to Chicago)

“Even though most people agree... I’m presenting a fair deal, the fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right.” (mixing up star trek and star wars)

“When I meet with world leaders, what’s striking — whether it’s in Europe or here in Asia...” (As he spoke to Hawaiians)

“We’re the country that built the Intercontinental Railroad.”

“We’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or providing good service. We don’t want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy.”

“One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world — Navy Corpse-Man Christian Brossard.” he pronounced the ps in “Corpsman”

“The Cambridge police acted stupidly.”

“The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings and inefficiencies to our health care system.” (At least he spoke the truth for once)

“It was also interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There’s a lot of — I don’t know what the term is in Austrian, wheeling and dealing.” (While speaking to Germans- Imagine if President Bush had said any of these things?)

“No, no. I have been practicing...I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something.”

“I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” (Tipping his hand to Joe the plumber- Imagine the outrage by the press if President Bush said he was going to redistribute everyone’s hard earned money?)

“What I was suggesting — you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith...”

“I’m here with the Girardo family here in St. Louis.” (Speaking via satellite while in Kansas)

“Let me introduce to you the next President — the next Vice President of the United States of America, Joe Biden.”

“Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee — which is my committee — a bill to call for divestment from Iran as way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon.” (A committee he is NOT on)

“Let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s. It will be a strong friend of Israel’s under a McCain...administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel’s under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change.” (uh huh)

“On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.”

“I’ve now been in 57 states — I think one left to go.”

“Why can’t I just eat my waffle?”

“It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

“The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know, you know, there’s a reaction that’s been bred in our experiences that don’t go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that’s just the nature of race in our society.”

“Come on! I just answered, like, eight questions.” (That’s fine Mr President, you can take the next 7 years off then- we don’t want to overwork you)

“In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.” (12 people died)

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