MIKE POMPEO/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/SUMMIT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump walked away from a summit with North Korea on Thursday [2-28-19] saying his administration was ‘positioned to do something very special’ on denuclearization. Experts had their doubts. Trump’s own Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo even acknowledged the lack of progress with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un: ‘I wished we could have gotten a little bit further.’ Here’s a look at how Trump framed the summit, and what outside experts saw: Trump calls talks ‘productive’ Trump argued that talks with Kim were ‘productive,’ even as he said an impasse between the two was the reason the summit was cut short. Trump did not point to specific issues on which the summit yielded progress though he said his personal relationship with the North Korean leader remained warm. Many U.S. analysts and former officials have expressed skepticism about Trump’s comments touting progress up to and during the summit.”
–John Fritze, “Fact check: Trump says North Korea summit ‘productive.’ Was it?,” USA Today, February 28, 2019 6:02 pm