North Korea fires 10 missiles day after Trump curtails South Korea joint drills

There might be a pattern where Trump‘s fantastic chemistry with his dictator fellows yields pretty much nothing tangible (to say it charitably).

To wit, following Trump rolling out the red carpet for Putin in Alaska -

- Putin didn't reciprocate with restraint. The Alaska meeting produced no peace agreement, and the war continued. A year later, there is still no ceasefire.
- Moscow initially portrayed the summit as a success for Putin. The symbolism mattered: Putin had effectively been treated as a legitimate great-power counterpart, despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
- Then the Russian rhetoric turned against Trump. By June 2026, Russian officials were publicly accusing Washington of failing to implement the "understandings" they said Trump and Putin had reached. Lavrov even suggested Alaska might have been a US ploy to buy Kyiv time.
- now the relationship is openly adversarial again.