Rocket Man hohoho!

Trump really does pick his words off the cuff. He is now calling Kim Jong-un Rocket Man. It's like a joke! What I loved most of all however were the comments from HR McMaster (Herbert Raymond) the National Security Adviser, who looked rather po-faced when asked what he thought of the Rocket Man description. He pointed out as a matter of fact that the rockets were after all coming from North Korea so.... but actually it was a very serious business, so, possibly, calling Kim Rocket Man was maybe possibly not a very good idea. Oh dear, General Herbert - can I call you Herbert? - what a tricky life it is being National Security Adviser to a tweet tweet president. He knows that while a president like Trump, with his background and personality, can call Kim Jong-un Rocket Man or Vladimir Putin Muscle Man or Boris Johnson Huff and Puff Man or Emmanuel Macron Fancy Man, he, General McMaster has to choose his words more carefully. He is servant, not master (just McMaster!). But since Trump took over, many of his top advisers have had to face this agonising moment when some troublesome TV interviewer asks about the latest Trump tweet blast. Jim Mattis has had these moments, Rex Tillerson too and others. The important thing is to put the Trump tweet into context.....well what he really meant was etc etc, but then to add...although of course he is the president and it's a matter for him what he says, does etc etc, but never say, what the president said was rubbish! So I think Herbert Raymond did pretty well. In his mind he was thinking it's pretty stupid to call such a dangerous man Rocket Man but because it's Trump, his boss, he has to explain to the uninitiated that in terms of accuracy Kim IS a rocket man because that's what he does, builds and launches rockets. But if you're a military man like Herbert Raymond, you want to get across the message that calling Kim Rocket Man is taking the edge off the real danger he poses. In my view, "rocket", for example, is less threatening than "intercontinental ballistic missile" but I guess calling Kim ICBM Man has less of a ring about it. So Rocket Man it is from now on. But just to put it totally in context, read the words of Nikki Haley, superstar US ambassador to the UN. She said that as far as she was concerned, she would be happy to hand over the whole North Korea business to Jim Mattis because he has so many military options at his disposal. Jim Mattis, by the way, is Big Chief Military Man, but also, thank God, Sensible Man.