Reuters:
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday a major conflict with North Korea is possible in the standoff over its nuclear and missile programs, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute.The key here will be getting China to not only agree, but to participate in the sanctions.
"There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely," Trump told Reuters in an Oval Office interview ahead of his 100th day in office on Saturday.
Nonetheless, Trump said he wanted to peacefully resolve a crisis that has bedeviled multiple U.S. presidents, a path that he and his administration are emphasizing by preparing a variety of new economic sanctions while not taking the military option off the table.
One interesting sidelight of the interview:
Trump, sipping a Coke delivered by an aide after the president ordered it by pressing a button on his desk...Trump has a Coke button!
In other Korean news from the same interview...
Reuters:
U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday he will either renegotiate or terminate what he called a "horrible" free trade deal with South Korea and said Seoul should pay for a U.S. anti-missile system that he priced at $1 billion.Whether KORUS (the U.S.-South Korean trade deal) is good or bad is a question for the experts. However, it seems to me a person with business expertise, like Trump, would be a better judge than Hillary Clinton (who negotiated it) or Barack Obama (former community organizer and Constitutional lawyer). But this could just be a political maneuver on Trump's part.
In an interview with Reuters, Trump called the five-year-old trade pact with South Korea "unacceptable" and said it would be targeted for renegotiation after his administration completes a revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico.
Speaking of the former president...
Fox News:
Barack Obama, the former president, who has been criticized for taking in $400,000 for a Wall Street-sponsored speech, has reportedly pulled in the exact same amount for another speech in New York.Where was Democratic Party outcry when Hillary Clinton was pulling down $250,000 per speech from Wall Street banks? Or is it just the amount of $400,000 crosses some arbitrary line?
The former president appeared at the A&E Networks advertising upfront at The Pierre Hotel in New York City where he was interviewed by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin for more than 90 minutes in front of the cable network’s advertisers, The New York Post reported.
Earlier this week, the 44th president came under strong scrutiny after it was learned that he agreed to speak at a health care event in September sponsored by Wall Street Bank Cantor Fitzgerald, a speech that would earn him $400,000.
Surprisingly, Democratic Party leaders have come out to the media to harshly criticized Obama.
Obama's defense:
Obama spokesman Ed Schulz insisted the former president remains true to his progressive values, and said taking money from Wall Street is not the same as being bought by Wall Street.Actually, Schulz just made the Democrats' point for them. The so-called Wall Street reforms did nothing of the sort, allowing the "too big to fail" banks to grow bigger. Obama was bought and paid for by Wall Street before, and these speeches could be argued as a back-end payoff to him for what he did.
“With regard to this or any speech involving Wall Street sponsors, I'd just point out that in 2008, Barack Obama raised more money from Wall Street than any candidate in history — and still went on to successfully pass and implement the toughest reforms on Wall Street since FDR,” Schulz said.
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