THE SECRETARY TRAVELS – AT 12:52 P.M. ET:   While we're celebrating Independence Day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is getting ready to leave for North Korea.   He will leave tomorrow, and his objective is to put in motion a workable, provable plan to denuclearize North Korea.

The Trump Must Vanish press has already discounted, and even ridiculed, Trump's North Korea initiative.  This despite the fact that the president has accomplished what no prior president has – getting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table.

The Trump denouncers have also pronounced that Kim outmaneuvered Trump at their recent summit conference, and actually got concessions from Trump while giving nothing in return.  That is ridiculous.  The most Kim got were a few goodwill gestures.  He got nothing even close to sanctions relief, which North Korea desperately needs.  The anti-Trump whiners – who never showed the slightest interest in the North Korean threat when Field Marshal Obama was in the White House – claim that Kim got prestige by standing next to the American president.  More nonsense.  Presidents stand next to leaders of small nations all the time, and, in fact, North Korea is a nuclear power.  How else was the president to meet Kim – on Skype?

The president has said, and promised, that North Korea would get nothing unless it took actual, physical steps toward eliminating its nuclear arsenal and missile systems.  The president is on the line for that promise, and I wouldn't be shocked if he suspended negotiations and froze sanctions relief in place if he isn't getting what he promised the American people.

The serious talks are just starting.  We should support the president and the secretary, yet insist that they keep their promise.  I think they will.

July 4, 2018