Yesterday:
Important actions today from @USTreasury; the maritime industry must do more to stop North Korea’s illicit shipping practices. Everyone should take notice and review their own activities to ensure they are not involved in North Korea’s sanctions evasion. https://t.co/AVnOPrWbH6
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) March 21, 2019
Today:
It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2019
He reversed…. by tweet. What?? Why??
Initial sense I'm getting is this tweet caught some administration officials off guard. Bolton and administration officials made it clear that the Treasury sanctions announced yesterday should be viewed as a continuation of the ongoing pressure campaign, not as an escalation. https://t.co/bVQvddWbBf
— Zachary Cohen (@ZcohenCNN) March 22, 2019
America’s approach to North Korea under the Trump administration is as schizophrenic and confusing as Trump’s tweet. One minute there are sanctions and the next minute they are gone and nobody knows what the hell is going on.
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) March 22, 2019
WH explanation: “President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary.” Sarah Sanders says in statement. https://t.co/faxF4gVqwa
— Eliana Johnson (@elianayjohnson) March 22, 2019
I guess if you can con the President into thinking you like him (not hard to do), he will let you get away with anything.
Two observations: 1) This is why past presidents established process in the White House, so that actions lined up with goals. When no policy process you get chaos and reversals. 2) China and Russia just got green light to undercut existing sanctions, since there are no penalties. https://t.co/aOXM15bHsW
— David Sanger (@SangerNYT) March 22, 2019