OPINION:
Though it wasn’t picked up by anyone in the cowering news media, who were busy hiding under their desks when President Trump warned North Korea that if they continued with their provocation, they would face “fire and fury, the likes of which we’ve never seen before,” Mr. Trump was actually testing a little-known theory of his.
In his 1990 book, “Trump: Surviving at the Top,” he wrote, “Americans have become so accustomed to professional politicians that when they are faced with a strong personality — a man or woman of action — they are afraid, or at least very wary When we fear leaders of great passion, though, we often forget that the other side fears them, too.” This is a great point. No one has ever seen a U.S. president ’get in the face ’of a murderous despot and threaten him with nuclear retaliation the way Mr. Trump did this week by using the term “fire and fury.”
Now I know this scares the pundits, but I daresay it also scares the North Korean leadership. Someone high up in that regime is frightened of the consequences of Mr. Trump unleashing a nuclear assault on that country, and perhaps that person will institute a coup to replace the current regime.
If this desirable result occurs from Mr. Trump’s fiery rhetoric — getting the job done without so much as a shot being fired — wouldn’t it be considered one of the greatest diplomatic moves of all time?
EUGENE DUNN
Medford, N.Y.
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