United States of America eSeries: 'The honeymoon is over'

'The honeymoon is over'

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May 3, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'The honeymoon is over'

North Korea is the problem every new US administration fails to fix.

Now Joe Biden's White House is having its stab at ending 70 years of futility. The White House has completed a North Korea policy review and is briefing US allies in Asia on its new approach. It hasn't laid out a new strategy to the public yet, but is teasing a "calibrated, practical approach."

Every President of the last 30 years has tried to defuse its standoff with the totalitarian, paranoid and nuclear armed state. Bill Clinton did a deal to freeze Pyongyang's plutonium program, but it launched a uranium program instead. George W. Bush talked tough, then tried in vain to strike a deal in talks including Pyongyang's neighbors. Barack Obama chose "strategic patience," which involved further isolating the already reclusive nation and waiting for it to change its belligerent behavior. No dice. Donald Trump veered from one extreme to the other -- threatening to rain fire and fury on the North before lavishing leader Kim Jong Un with summits and photo ops.

Through it all, the Kim dynasty has alarmed the world with tests of ever-more sophisticated missiles and nuclear weapons, and refused to lift repression of the North Korean people.

Biden's approach appears likely to seek engagement with Pyongyang and offer small-scale steps in exchange for changes in its behavior, with the ultimate goal of working towards the eradication of the North's arsenal. But Kim's government prefers to rattle sabers to get attention, and warned Biden on Sunday of a coming "crisis beyond control."

Each new American strategy founders for the same reasons: Military action against the North would have consequences too awful to contemplate. And the regime sees its nuclear arsenal as a guarantee of its survival. Until these change, Presidents are likely to keep striking out.

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The world and America

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's scandals are piling up.

Investigators in football legend Diego Maradona's death accused his medical team of recklessness.

Recriminations are flying over a lethal stampede in northern Israel.

And more than 350 people were arrested in Berlin during May Day demonstrations.

Meanwhile in America, White House officials say 'no deal' has been reached to lift Iran sanctions.

A boating accident in California killed two people and put dozens in the hospital.

And Manchester United's American owners are in hot water with fans.

Police fired water cannon and tear gas in Brussels on Saturday to break up an anti-lockdown party. (Reuters)

The Big Lie

Trump is no longer President, but he could still ruin American democracy for decades to come.

A new poll shows that 76% of Republicans believe that the 2020 election was stolen -- a direct consequence of months of flagrant lies from a commander-in-chief whose vanity couldn't allow him to accept a fair defeat. The survey, by Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, explains why some Republican politicians who initially condemned Trump's attempt to overturn the vote have folded in fear of their own voters. One of the few GOP titans to stick to his guns -- former presidential nominee and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney -- was shouted down by members of his own party at the weekend.

As we've said before, there is zero evidence that Biden's election victory came through voter fraud. Multiple judges, including on the US Supreme Court, have thrown out Trump's evidence-free lawsuits. Plenty of Republican state officials also refused to bend to Trump's malevolent sore-looserism.

But base voters genuinely want to believe Trump, because his claims of rigging play into suspicions that Washington is corrupt and out to get them. His lies are also amplified day and night by conservative media; one network is even helping to orchestrate a sham recount of votes in Arizona, a key battleground that went to Biden in 2020.

Future Republican candidates who hope for Trump's endorsement will have to accept his Big Lie, too, which means that the mid-term election and the 2024 presidential race could be further tainted by false claims — whether he runs or not. Republican state lawmakers across the country are meanwhile passing laws at lightning speed that clearly discriminate against Democratic and Black voters — all justified by their claim Americans don't trust the voting system. But the real reason for that distrust is Trump himself.

'The honeymoon is over'

Biden's first 100 days are over, and so may be his grace period with the American left. A group of progressive organizations this week released a memo that graded Biden's performance so far on various issues as either "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory" and urged him to pick up the pace on fulfilling campaign promises. "A decisive blow has been struck against COVID, but a laundry list of open items remains," they wrote, concluding: "TL;DR: The honeymoon is over. Let's go, Joe."

Thanks for reading and welcome to a new week.

Foreign ministers of the G7, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, begin a meeting in London on Monday. France, Portugal, Austria, and Greece plan to ease COVID-19 restrictions. Mexico expects to receive 500,000 more Sputnik V doses from Russia.