A bad and spectacular week for Trump

I think the world is beginning to get the measure of Donald Trump. There are bad days, there are very bad days and then there are spectacular days. So this week has seen the lot really. The announcement that he was definitely going ahead with steel and aluminium import tariffs made the vast majority of the world angry and bewildered. Even Liam Fox, British international trade secretary who is the most pro-America minister in the cabinet, made clear his disapproval and dismay. Then out pops the spectacular: Trump agrees to meet with Kim Jong-un. That is so Trump. Blast the hell out of the North Korean leader for months, call him every name under the sun, and then announce a get-together in which both men presumably will share tea and biscuits and chat about saving the world. Total about-turn. But it's Trump all over. Big brutal waving of the military stick and then charm and smooching. Well, if it works, good for him and good for his style of diplomacy. If it doesn't work, at least he had a go. Is Trump the man to force Kim Jong-un to consider giving up his nuclear weapons? Well, I doubt he'll do that, as I blogged yesterday, but Trump and his admiration for reality TV shows just might be the right personality to confront Kim Jong-un. Trump won't mind meeting him whereas Obama would probably have squirmed at the thought of sitting down in the same room as the bouffant rocket man. Or is that unfair on Obama? So let's give Trump the benefit of the doubt. He's a showman and so, too, to a certain extent is Kim Jong-un. Let them play and see what happens.