Conservative columnist calls out Trump team as 'overanxious rubes' for pinning their hopes on North Korea summit

A Washington Post conservative columnist has a new piece in which she dissects how the Trump team got rolled by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

In a new column, Jennifer Rubin explains that Trump fell for "the oldest trick in the diplomatic book" by focusing on "dialogue" as a victory rather than staying focused on the end goal, or, as Rubin puts it, "what result they will accept and how to get it."

She pulls a telling quote from the White House: "The answer is, we’re optimistic. Everybody is thinking about this in a positive light.”

This is a terrible approach, she argues.

"Sorry, but in the strategic faceoff between the United States and a rogue nuclear state, that quote makes Trump’s team sound like overanxious rubes," Rubin writes.

Trump's stated goal is "total denuclearization" which the conservative notes is "virtually unattainable."

It's important to not rush and or have unreasonable goals. The diplomat Rubin quotes, in fact, says these are the two most important things you can do. Which brings us to the precipice of stunning failure, she argues.

"All of this would be worrisome with a president deeply versed in foreign policy, temperamentally disciplined and hyper-resilient to empty flattery. Since we have a deeply ignorant president, unwilling to learn beyond a bumper-sticker slogan (America First!) and a sitting duck for wily manipulators, there is reason to be especially worried," Rubin concluded.

You can read the whole piece here.