Trump’s DMZ Delusions

From magnets to ‘comfort women’ and a Trump Tower in Pyongyang, the former president turned a tense Korea summit into a stream-of-consciousness sideshow.

Donald Trump sat beside the South Korean president this week and delivered what can best be described as a diplomatic variety show, equal parts nostalgia tour, campaign stump speech, and real estate sales pitch. What was supposed to be a sober bilateral conversation about security, trade, and North Korea instead became a meandering monologue about his “great relationship” with Kim Jong-un, his dream of building a Trump Tower in Pyongyang, and the mysterious global crisis of… magnets.

At one point, Trump recounted his famous DMZ walk, that made-for-TV moment in 2019 when he briefly stepped over the line dividing North and South Korea, shaking Kim Jong-un’s hand while the cameras rolled. To Trump, it remains one of his crowning achievements, proof that he alone could charm dictators into submission. This time, he bragged about seeing “more rifles than I’ve ever seen in my life” pointed at him through the windows of the border huts, but reassuring the room he “felt safe because I have a great relationship with Kim Jong-un.”