Overall I consider Donald Trump a threat to American democracy and America’s historic leadership in the world. His executive actions against minorities and immigrants are a disgrace. His view of America first is a nationalist isolationist philosophy that will impact the United States in a negative way that is yet to unfold. His efforts to destroy the Affordable Care Act without a workable alternative shows his lack of concern for the majority of Americans.

Despite the above summary I believe that Trump’s speech to South Korea’s National Assembly was neither bombastic nor threatening and I believe set the right tone in America’s effort to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

Kim Jong Un’s goal of having nuclear weapons that can reach the United States mainland is not likely to be deterred by the Trump speech.  Short of war I cannot see a path that will result in America’s objective of bringing about a denuclearized Korean peninsula.