Rather than studiously prepare for a summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, President Trump apparently plans to fake it till he makes it.
The upcoming summit is unprecedented, so top advisers are flying somewhat blind when it comes to preparing for a Trump-Kim sit-down. But Politico reports that Trump hasn't even been consulting with his national security team to strategize, skipping planning meetings and preferring improvisation over careful preparation.
The National Security Council would usually convene with the president many times before such an important event. But several administration officials told Politico that Trump has taken a more "unstructured" approach, choosing not to attend or arrange NSC meetings. The summit, which is scheduled for Tuesday in Singapore, will seek to persuade Kim to denuclearize.
Additionally, National Security Adviser John Bolton has reportedly irritated Trump recently, leading the president to leave him out of a meeting with a North Korean official who visited Washington last week. Officials say it's still unclear what role Bolton will play when he attends the summit, with one saying it's "shocking" how much is still unplanned.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway insisted that Trump is working hard "in many different ways for many different major summits." But a Bush administration official who was assigned to foreign policy in Asia had a different view, saying experts worry the president "is going to wing this summit." Read more at Politico.