During his visit with brutal North Korean dictator—and wearer of one of the tightest Asian-man high-top fades, Kim Jong Un—President NuNu von SherbetSkin saluted a uniformed North Korean military officer because he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.
According to the Daily Beast, after Donald Trump shook Kim Jong Un’s hand, the president then reached out his notoriously small hand to shake hands with North Korean Gen. No Kwang Chol. The general went on to salute Trump, who then decided to salute back because he really doesn’t know how any of this works. The two men then shook hands, bumped heads and poked each other in the eyes; then Trump slapped the general on the back, who spit out water, and the two drove off in a really small car.
The Hill reports that as a show of respect, it’s typical for presidents to salute U.S. military members, but they shouldn’t be out here saluting members of a bloody regime.
“A U.S. official told CNN that Trump was briefed on protocol, which is to not salute military officers from other countries,” CNN reports. But does the White House view Trump’s salute as a problem? Of course not.
“The White House, however, is not viewing Trump saluting a North Korean general as a mistake,” the official told CNN. “It is being seen as all part of the broader goal that day, which was to show respect to Kim and his entourage.”
So the president of the United States just saluted “one of the most oppressive regimes on Earth,” as CNN correctly calls North Korea, but again, let’s talk about how football players who kneel to protest the deaths of black people at the hands of police are disrespecting the flag.
And during the same trip, because Trump was out here giving away salutes like Oprah tosses out cars, he also saluted Singaporean military members.
“It was an inappropriate thing for him to do from a protocol perspective,” retired Rear Adm. John Kirby told CNN. “He’s played right into the North’s propaganda about their legitimacy on the world stage.”