The Atlantic

Why Trump Is Wholly Unsuited to the North Korea Crisis

The president confronts a situation that calls for a trustworthy, careful, decisive leader drawing on all available expertise.
Source: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

For months, worried observers of the Trump administration have wondered what would happen when the president first faced a bona fide, urgent international crisis out of his own control.

This week, the world seems terrifyingly close to getting an answer.

On Monday, the United Nations Security Council approved new sanctions on North Korea. On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that the North Korean regime has for the first time produced a miniaturized warhead that can be attached to a nuclear missile. And later on Tuesday, speaking at a briefing on the opioid crisis, President Trump offered an unusually warlike, blunt statement.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” he said. “They will

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