Mother Jones illustration; Getty, Drew Angerer/Getty
For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.
A friend emails with a question:
Why is Trump so intolerant of Iran and yet so tolerant of Putin and Kim Jong Un?
This is an easy one. President Obama signed a treaty with Iran but treated both North Korea and Russia harshly. Trump is motivated largely by a hatred of Obama, so he always wants to do the exact opposite. That means hating on Iran but cozying up to North Korea and Russia. I think you’ll find that this simple heuristic accounts for pretty much all of Trump’s country-specific sentiments, including Saudi Arabia, Israel, Germany, Canada, Ukraine, Cuba, and so forth. Helluva way to run a railroad.
