NATIONAL SECURITY/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump again raised the prospect of nuclear war with North Korea, boasting in strikingly playground terms on Tuesday [1-2-18] night that he commands a ‘much bigger’ and ‘more powerful’ arsenal of devastating weapons than the outlier government in Asia…
The president’s tone also generated a mix of scorn and alarm among lawmakers, diplomats and national security experts who called it juvenile and frightening for a president handling a foreign policy challenge with world-wrecking consequences. The language was reminiscent of Mr. Trump’s boast during the 2016 presidential campaign that his hands, and by extension his genitals, were in fact big enough…
The North Korea tweet near the end of the day seemed most distressing to some in Washington watching the escalating clash between the United States and a nuclear-armed North…
Eliot A. Cohen, who was counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice under President George W. Bush, said the tweet demonstrated an immaturity that is dangerous in a commander in chief.”
-Peter Baker and Michael Tackett, “Trump Says His ‘Nuclear Button’ Is ‘Much Bigger’ Than North Korea’s,” The New York Times online, Jan. 2, 2018