Donald Trump has defied convention at practically every turn since gaining the office of the Presidency.
Indeed, his win itself was a monumental shock; a seeming piece of illogic that flew in the face of pollsters who had misread the public mood so devastatingly wrongly. Much has happened since that day; executive orders, polarizing policies and the continuing investigation into members of the Trump campaign team's links to Russian officials - one scandal the President has not managed to shake off with quite the same alacrity as others from his campaign trail.
Then, mere months ago, the world was holding its breath as Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-Un staggered along a seemingly inexorable path towards a disastrous war, only, incredibly, to actually meet each other face to face in Singapore last month.
Lest we forget, it was only recently that the pair were trading barbs via the press and, in Trump's case, on his favoured communicative medium of Twitter, on which he referred to Kim Jong-Un as "Little Rocket Man" - referencing North Korea's missile tests.
The tone Trump had taken on the Korean peninsula seemed sure to spell only disaster, but now it seems that the pair are on such good terms that the President of the United States is reportedly sending Kim Jong-Un a present. And it's bizarre.
South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reports that secretary of state Mike Pompeo will bring a letter and gift from Donald Trump to Kim Jong-Un to a meeting in Pyongyang. The gift? Supposedly, it is an Elton John CD which features - you guessed it - Rocket Man. What's more, the CD is said to have been signed by Trump himself.
The newspaper claims that the nickname was brought up in the pair's Singapore meeting last month, at which point Trump apparently asked his counterpart if he knew the song. Kim replied that he didn't and, somehow, here we are. If only the President put as much thought into his gifts for Melania.
Pompeo tweetd about his visit to Pyongyang, but admittedly made no reference to the reported gift, writing;
"Next stop: Pyongyang. I look forward to continuing my meetings with North Korean leaders. There's much hard work ahead but peace is worth the effort."
In a statement cited by CBS news, Pompeo expanded;
“On this trip, I’m seeking to fill in some details on those commitments and continue the momentum toward implementation of what the two leaders promised each other and the world".
Let's hope the two countries can work towards a peaceful solution that, until extremely recently, looked to be almost impossible to achieve in the wake of ill-advised militaristic rhetoric and provocation that threatened to escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula past breaking point.
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