Voters Have Spoken: Trump-Kim Summit Was a Huge Win
The first year of Donald Trump’s presidency was marked by bellicose and bombastic rhetoric between him and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un amid ballistic missile launches, nuclear tests and military exercises.
Many “experts” and anti-Trump critics worried that the president would spark a nuclear war with the reclusive rogue regime in North Korea, but that appears to have changed following the June 12 summit in Singapore between the leaders of the two countries.
Now a major poll shows that a majority of American voters believe the “experts” were wrong in their predictions and the high-stakes summit to secure a nuclear weapons-free peace on the Korean peninsula was a success.
That poll was conducted by Morning Consult/Politico in the immediate aftermath of the Singapore summit and revealed that 54 percent of registered voters considered the summit to be either somewhat or very successful.
About 24 percent of voters believed the summit was not successful and 22 percent couldn’t say for sure or had no opinion.
Unsurprisingly, the view of the summit as a success was shared by a large majority of Republican voters — 79 percent — but even 48 percent of independents thought it was successful compared to 22 percent who didn’t, and Democrats were split 38-40 in terms of it being a success or unsuccessful.
Very few specifics emerged from the summit other than a commitment by North Korea to denuclearize, and voters were split almost evenly with regard to whether they believed Kim would follow through on that commitment or not.
Roughly 33 percent of voters believe Kim will denuclearize North Korea, 32 percent believe he won’t follow through, and 35 percent didn’t know or had no opinion.
Voters appear to remain skeptical with regard to Kim’s commitment, with 55 percent expressing doubt that North Korea will completely scrap their nuclear program following the summit. Indeed, approximately 40 percent believe the communist nation will only partially dismantle their nuclear program.
That said, a plurality of voters — 45 percent — viewed the summit as a major turning point in America’s foreign policy toward North Korea, compared with about 33 percent who felt the summit made no real difference.
Along those lines, a majority of 56 percent of voters stated that it was too soon to tell if the summit would lead to improved relations between the two countries.
However, it is worth noting that only 46 percent of voters now view North Korea as an outright enemy of the United States, a five-point drop since that question was last asked in May.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had stated after the summit that he was looking at a timeline of about two and half years for North Korea to achieve “major disarmament” of their nuclear program.
Roughly 35 percent of voters are in agreement with that timeline and believe that North Korea should be allowed anywhere from one to five years time to dismantle their nuclear program. Meanwhile, a plurality of 38 percent of voters took a much harsher stance and thought North Korea should completely disarm their nuclear program within one year.
As for the potential suspension of joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises in the region, which Kim views as “provocative,” only 31 percent agree they should be suspended while 36 percent think they should continue and 32 percent were unsure either way.
The liberally-biased mainstream media can denigrate, dismiss or downplay the Singapore summit all they want — and they are correct to express a measure of skepticism — but it would appear that the American voters are a bit more cautiously optimistic with regard to the summit than the media narrative would imply.
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