Seems President Trump and Vice President Pence have differing views on North Korea. CNN cites 'strategic patience' as an Obama-era strategy, and it seems one that Trump wants to stick to in the long run (I think a war with NK is turning out to be more sour than he initially thought). Pence, however, says "The era of strategic patience is over", definitely indicating a willingness to have some kind of unilateral intervention in NK with VPOTUS.

I give credit where credit is due, I think Trump strong-arming China to handle NK is a wise move. It keeps our hands (more or less) clean and keeps China accountable for stability in the region. Pence on the other hand, well I think pretty low of him (nasty phrases omitted because of this being a family site and all...)

CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/politics/ ... index.html

It is likely part of their strategy and it works to Trump's advantage that the media wishfully thinks he has none.

It's hard to decipher Trump's position, providing he even has one.

He constantly flip-flops on every single position he's ever taken, as he seems to have gotten on the throne with very little knowledge of the World around him and the dynamics of international politics. He doesn't seem very intent on learning either, given how he doesn't read and has famously requested of his aides and counselors to keep his briefings short and with plenty of pictures...
To credit him with having a strategy at all is putting a lot of faith in him IMO.

What does seem to be happening, on the other hand, is that the Republicans and the military lobbies operating in the government appear to be taking advantage of Trump's lack of abilities in the field to have obtained more deciding power from him, and it looks like the generals and the hard-core Republicans (including Pence) running the government in the background are calling the shots, quite literally. And they seem to be looking for a war to fight.

Trump was quick to take credit for dropping the MOAB and the missile strike in Syria (yet famously said they had launched them towards Irak in an interview...), but it was later found that Trump's approval wasn't even needed or sought for these attacks. And when his approval is needed, he doesn't seem to be a hard man to convince. All you need is 5 minutes of his attention and he'll see things your way, given he usually comes in the conversation with zero knowledge of the topic at hand, as has been demonstrated repeatedly.

It tends to confirm the pre-election suspicions that Trump would delegate A LOT of the stuff to other people... I doubt he has a close interest in what happens with the military or even international politics and diplomacy and would rather let others take care of it. His son-in-law or, yes, even Pence, are probably deciding what will happen more than the President.

I just hope the military and the generals aren't so hungry for a war that they'll light the whole place up.

TWA772LR wrote:

Seems President Trump and Vice President Pence have differing views on North Korea.

Yeah, unlike Trumputin, Pence has already found the Korean peninsula on a world map.

Not to derail the thread, but North Korea isn't the only thing they offer differing views on (or having flipped flopped since entering the White House).

NAFTA anyone?