Brooks: Trump ‘Did a Good Thing’ With North Korea ‘in the Worst Possible Way’

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks said President Trump did “do a good thing” with North Korea by settling tensions, but did so “in the worst possible way” by ignoring North Korea’s human rights abuses.

Brooks stated, “I give him more credit than a lot other people that I’m reading. You know, we were — and people who really knew the North Korean situation were terrified six, eight, 10 months ago that we were really heading in a bad direction and things — there was some danger of things spinning out of control. And now, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Now, there’s — tensions have settled. There seems to be no risk of any confrontation or war. And so, to me, that’s the big story, and that’s the lead, and that’s a good thing.”

He continued, “Now, once you get down to the second and third paragraph, it begins to deteriorate quickly. And the things Trump said about the regime, calling a murderous dictator ‘a tough guy,’ that’s horrific. The way human rights are treated, the way he just flippantly tossed off the practice, the war games, is horrific. But, to me, those are serious deficits. He did a good thing in the worst possible way.”

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