Who is the biggest threat to Japan right now ¡ª Kim Jong Un or Donald Trump? Welcome to Shinzo Abe¡¯s hell, as he grapples with two erratic leaders vying for his attention.
The U.S. president has Abe¡¯s loyalty. Abe¡¯s sprint to Trump Tower shortly after the New Yorker¡¯s shock election in November won the prime minister a place in his heart. And, hopefully, a reprieve on Trump¡¯s itchy trade-war finger. But the North Korean leader is winning the news cycle, most recently with an intercontinental ballistic missile that may have landed within 200 nautical miles of Japan¡¯s coast. That trolled Trump to give Xi Jinping the Jeff Sessions treatment on Twitter.
Trump berating China¡¯s president for inaction in ways reminiscent of his 140-character attacks on U.S. Attorney General Sessions won¡¯t work. Xi knows he¡¯ll be at the helm long after the Trump circus leaves Washington and historians file it under ¡°cautionary tales.¡± But here¡¯s something that might work: Abe trolling Beijing into docking Kim¡¯s allowance. Not via tweets, but by announcing Japan will host a series of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems.
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