Milbank: Trump’s overworked cleanup crew’s biggest job yet

By Dana Milbank

I had dreams of fire and fury like the world has never seen. But now I will sleep well, because Rex Tillerson told me I should.

There is no “imminent threat” from North Korea, the secretary of state said Wednesday. “The American people should sleep well at night.”

It was the latest and largest cleanup effort undertaken by President Trump’s aides since this administration took power. Their unorthodox message to an anxious nation and a panicky world: Don’t take seriously what the president of the United States says.

On Tuesday, Trump delivered remarks about North Korea — words we now know to have been off the cuff — that pushed the world toward a nuclear standoff last seen in the Cuban missile crisis: “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States.” If it does make threats, the president said, “they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Many noted that the wording echoed Harry Truman’s warning at the time of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. But then came Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil chairman, to assure us that there is nothing to see. It has become a familiar exercise: walking back, cleaning up and outright contradicting crazy things uttered by the man with the nuclear codes.

Early on, Trump announced that he had undertaken “a military operation” to get “really bad dudes out of this country, and at a rate that nobody’s ever seen before.”

The U.S. military is rounding up immigrants? Mexican officials freaked out. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, now White House chief of staff, drew cleanup duty: “No — repeat, no — use of military force in immigration operations. None,” he said.

Trump, during his visit to Brussels, shocked allies and caught his aides by surprise when he struck from his speech to NATO the usual commitment to the alliance’s collective defense — this, after calling NATO “obsolete.” Days later, Vice President Pence reassured jittery allies: “Our commitment is unwavering. … An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

Trump, appearing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, upended the long-standing U.S. commitment to a “two-state” solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I am looking at two-state, and one-state,” he said. Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was put on walk-back patrol the next day. “We absolutely support a two-state solution,” she said.

The cleanup patrol has a domestic operation, too. When Trump, after a bipartisan budget deal was reached, tweeted the notion that “our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September,” White House budget director Mick Mulvaney was hustled out to contain the damage: “We’ve averted a shutdown. … That’s the story now, not what might happen in September.”

After Trump tweeted that “Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower,” Sean Spicer, who was White House press secretary, famously explained that “the president used the word ‘wiretaps’ in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities.”

And, when Trump attacked the “FAKE NEWS media,” which he proclaimed “the enemy of the American People,” Pence swabbed the decks, saying: “Rest assured, both the president and I strongly support a free and independent press.”

The cleanup patrol has a broad membership. Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, took a turn after Trump declared: “The Germans are bad, very bad. See the millions of cars they sell in the U.S.? Terrible. We will stop this.”

Cohn said: “He said they’re very bad on trade but he doesn’t have a problem with Germany.” Cohn explained that Trump’s “dad is from Germany.”

Asian allies became restless after Trump, during the campaign, said Japan should protect itself from North Korea, or pay the United States for providing security. After taking office, he jettisoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership and told South Korean officials that it would be “appropriate if they pay” for a $1 billion U.S. missile defense system. This time, it was the duty of the national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, to reassure South Koreans that the United States would continue to pay.

And Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, as part of an extended cleanup tour in the region, announced: “Our commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan, to include the employment of our most advanced capabilities, is ironclad.”

There have been other such cleanup actions, and there will inevitably be many more, as Trump’s advisers try to convey to the world a perverse message: Rest assured, sleep well — and pay no attention to the president’s yammering.

Follow Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Opinion

toon
Editorial cartoons for Thursday, July 10

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

2024 Presidential Election Day Symbolic Elements.
Editorial: Retain Escamilla, Binda on Lynnwood City Council

Escamilla was appointed a year ago. Binda is serving his first term.

Blame Democrats’ taxes, rules for out-of-state ferry contract

Gov. Bob Ferguson should be ashamed of the hypocrisy shown by choosing… Continue reading

Letter used too broad a brush against Democrats

In response to a recent letter to the editor, this Democrat admits… Continue reading

Kristof: Women’s rights effort has work to do in Africa, elsewhere

Girls in Sierra Leone will sell themselves to pay for school. The feminist movement has looked away.

French: Supreme Court hits a vile industry with its comeuppance

While disagreeing on the best test, the justices agreed on the threat that porn poses to children.

Comment: When ‘politically correct’ becomes ‘Trump approved’

Companies and reporters are seeing the consequences of using words the president doesn’t approve of.

A Volunteers of America Western Washington crisis counselor talks with somebody on the phone Thursday, July 28, 2022, in at the VOA Behavioral Health Crisis Call Center in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Editorial: Dire results will follow end of LGBTQ+ crisis line

The Trump administration will end funding for a 988 line that serves youths in the LGBTQ+ community.

toon
Editorial: Using discourse to get to common ground

A Building Bridges panel discussion heard from lawmakers and students on disagreeing agreeably.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Friday, June 27, 2025. The sweeping measure Senate Republican leaders hope to push through has many unpopular elements that they despise. But they face a political reckoning on taxes and the scorn of the president if they fail to pass it. (Kent Nishimura/The New York Times)
Editorial: GOP should heed all-caps message on tax policy bill

Trading cuts to Medicaid and more for tax cuts for the wealthy may have consequences for Republicans.

toon
Editorial cartoons for Wednesday, July 9

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Welch: A plan to supply drugs to addicts is a dangerous dance

A state panel’s plan to create a ‘safer supply’ of drugs is the wrong path to addiction recovery.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.