NORTH KOREA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Amid growing doubts about whether President Trump will meet with North Korea’s leader on June 12, Kim Jong-un, the Trump administration came under criticism Tuesday over commemorative coins that were created to honor the planned meeting. The coins, issued by the White House Communications Agency, a military unit assigned to the president, feature likenesses of the two leaders, referring to Mr. Kim as ‘Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.’ Some faulted the United States for honoring a dictator who runs a repressive regime. Robert E. Kelly, the South Korea analyst who became known as the BBC dad after his children’s intrusion into his home office went viral, mocked the administration for fostering a ‘personality cult,’ calling the coins ‘just gross.’ The White House later issued a statement saying it ‘did not have any input into the design and manufacture of the coin.’ It said such coins had been ordered since 2003 by members of the White House Communications Agency, whose military service personnel are assigned to handle presidential communications, including during trips abroad.”
-Gerry Mullany, “Trump-Kim Meeting Is Yet to Come, but U.S. Has Minted the Coins,” The New York Times online, May 22, 2018