Latest news with #HotelMajestic
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Zoey Deutch on Cannes, Chanel and Channeling Jean Seberg in ‘Nouvelle Vague'
Zoey Deutch had barely touched down in Cannes when she tried on her Chanel red carpet dress for the first time. 'I got off the plane and went straight to the fitting,' she told WWD, speaking at the Hotel Majestic fresh from her final fitting. 'It felt like I was going to my wedding without seeing the wedding dress first. And then I walked in, saw it, and just went, 'Oh — it's perfect,'' she said. More from WWD Inside Coco Chanel's Renovated Villa La Pausa on the French Riviera Alexander Skarsgard Evokes Thigh-High Drama in Saint Laurent's Fetish Boots at Cannes for 'The Phoenician Scheme' Premiere Julianne Moore Does Dark Glamour with Brilliance in Bottega Veneta Knot Dress and Dangling Boucheron Diamonds for 'The Phoenician Scheme' Cannes Premiere Deutch stars in Richard Linklater's 'Nouvelle Vague,' in a competition slot in the festival. She plays 1960s star Jean Seberg, the ideal 'American-in-Paris' who became an icon of French cinema and style — despite being from Iowa — decades before Emily was a twinkle in Darren Starr's eye. The film explores Seberg's early years in film, as well as her relationship with Jean-Luc Godard. The dress in question was a custom Chanel gown, floor-length, subtly floral, and pulled from the pages of history (or Pinterest, as it were), based on a photo Deutch discovered and sent to Chanel's team in the earliest stages of design. It was not a Chanel but was emblematic of the time period, Deutch said, and served as an inspiration. The collaboration was months in the making. It started during production for the film, when the fashion house created a custom look for Deutch in character. Chanel supported the production both financially and fashionably, with costumes by Pascaline Chavanne. 'They took that image and built something entirely new from it,' Deutch said. The atelier adapted the pattern from the original into new embroidery, slimmed the silhouette, lengthened the shape, adapted the neckline and hand-stitched the blooms to match the archival inspiration with a contemporary feeling. The result was a white silk organza gown with a tiered peplum waist. Every inch was a nod to Seberg. The film, which centers on the birth of French New Wave cinema and the early days of French film magazine 'Cahiers du Cinéma,' also transported Deutch into a totally new way of working, both linguistically and stylistically. 'When I first got the script, I only had the English version, and it needed to be translated. So what I wanted to do first was figure out Jean's dialect. She was from Marshalltown, Iowa, but by the time she was shooting 'Breathless,' she had this affected voice [similar to] the way a lot of movie stars at the time spoke.' Deutch researched Seberg's voice extensively, tracing it back to her early training when Seberg worked with a dialect coach to eliminate her Midwest American accent. Once the French and English dialogue was finalized, Deutch began four months of French language work. 'Obviously phonetically, but also to learn it,' she said. 'Because it's not the speaking French that's the problem — it's the understanding and reacting. Everyone knows acting is reacting. How do you react if you have no idea what they're saying?' Her approach was rooted in listening. 'It was more actually studying other people's lines than studying my own,' she said. 'I had a little bit of a leg up in that she wasn't French and she was just learning French. She admitted to feeling insecure while filming 'Breathless' because she was doing basically all improv in a language that she was still learning.' To get into character, 'there was a lot of digging into what I perceived to be a great deal of mystery and sadness behind her eyes, and doing the inner work of where that came from,' said Deutch. 'Not just her voice or the way she dressed, but her spirit.' Acting in French changed her approach, stripped away her habits and served as a masterclass. 'You learn all the things that you fall back on, the safety nets you have, the -isms and things that make you feel safe in the context of a scene,' she said. 'I couldn't do any of that.' She worked on her French, but her transformation went beyond language. Deutch famously chopped off her long, thick curls and dyed them platinum to play Seberg — an act that initially surprised director Linklater. He questioned her commitment (or offered a reprieve) and suggested a wig instead. But Deutch thought it was an opportunity to transform and went for the big chop. 'To me, the greatest part of my job is that I get to live all these different lives. I was so excited to chop all my hair off and dye it blonde for this role. But if you were to ask me to do that in my life, I would be like, absolutely not,' she said. 'I can live a really boring life in my personal life, because I live these insane lives, and there's this sort of power in doing something when it's not attached to me.' As it turns out, going full pixie wasn't exactly low maintenance. 'Everyone was like, 'Oh, it must be so much easier.' No. It's significantly more work,' she said. Deutch adapted that symbol of French style — the head scarf. The star relayed that friends teased her for trying to cosplay as a stereotypical Parisienne, but in reality, it served the very practical function of covering the hair. Protection from poof was her priority. Living in Paris during filming with her new Seberg look gave Deutch a sense of place she hadn't felt before as a tourist in the city. Three months in Paris changed her perspective. Her central Saint-Germain housing helped; walking was the key. 'You don't really know it unless you live in it. But I really fell in love with Paris, in a way that I felt like I could live there,' she said. 'Everyone always says, 'Get lost in Paris and walk around.' And I just kept walking. That was the best part for me.' As for the role itself, Deutch focused tightly on one chapter of Seberg's life. 'It was of less importance to me to focus on that,' she said of the later, more tragic years. 'I didn't want to read the last page of the book when I was still on page 20.' Instead, she looked at the moment before Seberg became an icon and explored the uncertainty and trauma of her early failure after 'Saint Joan,' her turn as Joan of Arc, was panned. The result is an ebullient film by Cannes reviews, that epitomizes the hopes of that generation. Before Cannes, Deutch had already worked with Chanel on wardrobe for the film, which was shot mostly in Paris. Costume designer Chavanne custom made two outfits for the film, including a cappuccino-colored dress with a striped bodice and a tulle skirt. Chavanne watched films such as the documentary 'Chambre 12, Hôtel de Suède,' and dug through the Cinémathèque Française documents for her first step, then hit up the flea market in Saint Ouen to dig through vintage shops there. In the Cinémathèque's archives she found treasures such as the original receipt for Seberg's striped dress, which Godard purchased at the now-defunct Prisunic store on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Both the original and Linklater's film are monochrome, so part of Chavanne's biggest challenge was getting the tone right. 'The movie you see today is only in black and white, but when we made the movie, it's in color. You don't get to make it in gray,' she told WWD. The process required a lot of testing, and she pored over Chanel's own archives in a warehouse on the outskirts of Paris, where the brand houses books as well as original pieces and fabrics. When she came across the striped dress, she knew it would have to be in the film. The shape was completely modern, and the stripe has not only a special place in French cinema but has also become emblematic of French style. 'With the mariniere, there is a real connection,' she said. Brigitte Bardot is another cinema icon that made the stripe famous, and it's also a call back to Coco Chanel's personal style. The original was silk, but because it gets wet in the film, the brand experimented with fabrics. That's one of the hardest things about recreating vintage looks, she said, because the textiles used now are so different and don't carry the same shape or stretch. And while she took some liberties on the dress, one look that had to be faithfully recreated was Seberg's 'New York Herald Tribune' T-shirt from 'Breathless.' 'Many people have attempted this T-shirt because it's so emblematically famous, so it was not easy,' she said. It required many tries and finding the right textile to get the stiffer shape. It took several tests to get the right look. 'It's not only about the clothes, because the clothes are not just to be on the actors — it's a meeting between the actors and the clothes,' she said of the way they can transform on the screen. Deutch fell so in love with the striped dress that she decided to wear it to the Cannes photo-call. It's the first time in memory that a costume has been worn for the rooftop cast photos and press conference, which is usually a casual affair. And then there's the fashion. 'She was absolutely an icon,' Deutch said. French New Wave film was centered on realism, and Seberg styled herself. 'The clothing and the looks that she wears in ['Breathless'] are just pitch perfect. They are so classic and sexy and effortless,' she said. 'I loved everything I got to wear. I wish that's how I dressed every day.' Before hitting the screen, Deutch dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. 'I still sketch all the time. Getting to make custom things and work with designers — I feel like I get to live both of my dreams.' WWD shot the star as she headed to the famous 27 steps of the Palais des Festivals, looking calm, cool and collected despite internal jitters. 'I love fashion,' she said. 'But the red carpet part? Still terrifying. I don't think I've ever seen a photo of myself at a premiere where I look like me. I'm just too nervous.' That nervousness, though, is part of her process. 'Someone once told me that early in your acting career, the parts you get are just whatever you default to when you're scared,' she said, crediting someone 'smarter — maybe my mom.' (That mom is actress Lea Thompson of 'Back to the Future' fame.) If you get bubbly, you'll be cast in the talkative role; if you revert to seriousness, you'll get the brooding one, she relayed. 'Red carpets kind of bring that out — your default,' she said. Her early parts were rom-coms. The actress is busy, having just finished 'Our Town' on Broadway and is set to start shooting 'Voicemails to Isabelle' in Vancouver. She's itching to get back to the stage, in part because every day is a new opportunity to try something new. 'It was like I was saying a prayer, a two-hour prayer every day with 28 of my favorite people in the world on a stage with 1,000 people watching,' she said of the experience. In Cannes, Deutch was reveling in the scope of it all. 'It's intense with so many cameras, so many people yelling your name,' she said. 'But it's also surreal and beautiful and completely thrilling. 'Building these looks and these moments — I feel so grateful that I get to do it, especially when you're wearing something that feels like a story.' View Gallery Launch Gallery: Cannes Film Festival 2025 Red Carpet Fashion: Julianne Moore, Mariska Hargitay and More Photos, Live Updates Best of WWD Model and Hip Hop Fashion Pioneer Kimora Lee Simmons' Runway Career Through the Years [PHOTOS] Salma Hayek's Fashion Evolution Through the Years: A Red Carpet Journey [PHOTOS] How Christian Dior Revolutionized Fashion With His New Look: A History and Timeline
Time of India
18-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
2 hurt as segment of Porvorim elevated road falls while lifting
Panaji: A segment of the under-construction elevated corridor at Porvorim fell on Sunday afternoon, leading to injuries to two persons. The segment fell after the cable of the girder, used to lift the segment, got cut while lifting it. 'The slab fell while it was being lifted as the string of the girder could not take its weight. One labourer who was on the slab as it was being lifted jumped and sustained injuries,' said police. Police registered the case as 'other accident'. Police said that the incident took place at around noon while the segment was being lifted to be fixed between pillar 3 and pillar 4 at Guirim. They said that one person who was overseeing the work of lifting the segment saw the segment tilting to one side, and immediately jumped, sustaining injuries in the process. 'During the lifting of one of the precast segments near Sangolda junction, there was slippage due to electromechanical malfunctioning, no casualties reported,' said an official at the chief minister's office (CMO). A witness said that one person who was at his shop was injured after the concert block hit. "There were two persons injured in the incident," the witness said. The incident occurred at a spot with continuous vehicular movement, but fortunately, there was no loss of life. The contractor immediately started to clear the damaged segment that had fallen between the pillars. Work on the project began in Sep 2024. Within the first four months, 50% of it was completed. The contractors remain confident of completing the project by Dec, except for lighting and some finishing works. This target is four months ahead of govt's April 2026 schedule. The project, which is 5.2km long, will begin from Hotel Majestic in Porvorim and stretch up to the junction on the Guirim end, and is being constructed at a cost of Rs 364 crore. There will be 300m from the Atal Setu landing and the approach of the elevated highway at the Hotel Majestic end. Between the Atal Setu landing and the approach of the elevated road, a junction will come up like the one at Merces to allow traffic access to all roads, including service roads. A similar 300m distance will be kept between the end of the elevated highway and the start of the Guirim overpass, with a junction provided in this space for traffic to circulate. RRSM Infra will be responsible for the maintenance of the elevated highway for 10 years.
Time of India
24-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Porvorim corridor: 88 columns up, 9 segments lifted, road resurfacing on
Panaji: All 88 columns of the six-lane elevated highway corridor at Porvorim have been completed. By the end of May, the contractors Rajasthan-based RRSM Infra plan to complete the crowning of all columns with pier caps. Once the pier caps are up, they are ready for the superstructure to be lifted atop them. Already nine spans of the superstructure have been lifted on the Hotel Majestic side, RRSM vice-president (projects) Rajdeep Bhattacharya said. 'By this Dec-end, all spans will be up. By May end, all the piles, columns, pier caps will be ready, which is the groundwork for the spans to be lifted. Resurfacing of roads has begun, as stated before the high court,' said Bhattacharya. Post-monsoon, the contractor will start lifting all the remaining segments. A special launcher of a capacity of 2,040 tonnes is being used for fitting of the segments. A total of 17 segments have to be fitted between every two piers constructed at a distance of 50m. Each segment weighs 120 tonnes, which is equivalent to the weight of three trucks. Work on the project began in Sep 2024. Within the first four months, 50% of it had been completed. The contractors remain confident of completing the project by Dec 2025, except lighting and some finishing works. This target is four months ahead of govt's April 2026 schedule. The project, which is 5.2km long, will begin from Hotel Majestic in Porvorim and stretch up to the junction on Guirim end and is being constructed at Rs 364 crore. There will be 300m distance from the Atal Setu landing and the approach of the elevated highway on the Hotel Majestic end. Between the Atal Setu landing and the approach of the elevated road a junction will come up like the one at Merces to allow traffic access to all roads including the service roads. A similar 300m distance will be kept between the land of the elevated highway and the start of the Guirim overpass, with a junction provided in this space for traffic to circulate. RRSM Infra will be responsible for maintenance of the elevated highway for 10 years.
New York Times
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Baritone Walks in Bernstein's and Mahler's Footsteps
Good morning. It's Thursday. Today we'll take a walk with a Dutch baritone who visits the haunts of great composers when he is in New York. We'll also look at what could be an opening move against one of President Trump's adversaries, the New York attorney general. Thomas Oliemans arrived wearing a baseball cap from Zabar's on the Upper West Side. He said it got him reduced admission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which gives a price break to New York residents. But he's not one. He is a Dutch baritone who is appearing as Papageno in Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte' at the Metropolitan Opera. It is the same role that he sang at the Met two years ago when, on a day off, he walked 40 blocks to see where George Gershwin and Sergei Rachmaninoff had once lived. A jaunt like that was a way to decompress, he said then. Now it was the morning after another performance, and he had new places to walk to. He wanted to see where Leonard Bernstein and Gustav Mahler had lived — two larger-than-life musicians and larger-than-life personalities who had both been music directors of the New York Philharmonic. Mahler presided in the early years of the 20th century, Bernstein much later. Both were also composers as well as conductors. Bernstein once lamented that there was never 'enough time and energy to do both things,' which was 'one of the reasons why I'm so sympathetic to Mahler; I understand his problem.' And both were the subjects of very different movies. Mahler was played by Robert Powell in 'Mahler' in 1974, which The New York Times called 'crashingly unsuccessful.' Bernstein was played by Bradley Cooper in 'Maestro,' which was nominated for seven Academy Awards last year, including best picture and best original screenplay. So the first stop was Central Park West and West 72nd Street, home to both, decades apart. 'This corner is spectacular,' Oliemans said as he stopped in front of the Dakota, on the north side of the block. Bernstein lived there from the 1970s until his death in 1990. Oliemans marveled at the strikingly detailed recreation in 'Maestro.' On the south side of 72nd Street is the site of the Hotel Majestic, which was so extravagant that The New York Times published lists of who had checked in under headlines like 'Guests at the Hotel Majestic' or 'Hotel Majestic Arrivals.' Oliemans said that Mahler had looked out the window of his suite on the 11th floor of the Hotel Majestic one day in February 1908 as a funeral procession for a firefighter was passing by. The muffled sound of a drum 'moved Mahler so much he used it in his 10th symphony,' Oliemans said. (Mahler sketched out Symphony No. 10 two years later but died without orchestrating it. And the Hotel Majestic was demolished in the late 1920s for an Art Deco apartment house that was called simply the Majestic.) The next stop was 15 blocks away. Oliemans led the way through Central Park, stopping for a moment at the statue of Beethoven near the Naumburg Bandshell. Along the way he talked about an episode from Season 2 of the 1970s police drama 'Columbo.' It was about 'an overcharismatic conductor' obviously based on Bernstein, he said — except for the part where the conductor kills his wife. The destination was another storied apartment house, the Osborne, at 205 West 57th Street, where Bernstein lived in the 1950s. So did the pianist Van Cliburn, who got wake-up calls from Naomi Graffman, who worked for Cliburn's manager at Columbia Artists Management in those days. She and her husband, the pianist Gary Graffman, moved into the Osborne in 1962, after Cliburn had moved down the street. Naomi Graffman died in 2019. Gary Graffman, who is 96, still lives there. The Osborne is diagonally across Seventh Avenue from Carnegie Hall, where Mahler conducted more than 70 concerts and where Bernstein became a sensation in 1943, substituting with the Philharmonic with no rehearsal when the conductor Bruno Walter called in sick. 'Bernstein's ascent to the top of the accepted classical world and of Broadway is all here,' Oliemans said, looking up at the Osborne. 'Everyone said, 'You can't do both,' but he wrote 'West Side Story' here.' It opened in 1957, the same year Bernstein was named to succeed Dimitri Mitropoulos as music director of the Philharmonic. 'And that's only 1957,' he said. 'For many others, that would have been the pinnacle, to write something like 'West Side Story' and to be the chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic, but for him it was a beginning point, where by the time he was living in the Dakota he was 'the maestro' in capital letters.' Expect a sunny day with a high temperature around 63. In the evening, clear conditions will continue, along with a drop into the mid-40s. Suspended for Holy Thursday. The latest New York news A Trump official scrutinizes N.Y.'s attorney general over real estate It could be the opening move against one of President Trump's foremost adversaries. The administration has looked into real estate transactions by New York's attorney general, Letitia James. My colleague Jonah E. Bromwich writes that the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency sent a criminal referral letter to the Department of Justice this week, saying that James 'appeared to have falsified records' related to properties she owns in Virginia and New York in order to get favorable loan terms. The letter was dated April 14, one day after Trump posted a story involving the claims against her on Truth Social and called her a 'crook.' It is unclear whether the claims are substantive enough to warrant criminal charges. The letter about James, whose office filed a lawsuit in 2022 that accused Trump of overvaluing his assets by billions so he could receive more favorable terms on loans, cited documents concerning two properties: a house in Norfolk, Va., that she bought with a niece in 2023, and a Brooklyn house she has owned for two dozen years. When she bought the house in Virginia, she signed notarized paperwork saying that she would use it as a principal residence. Roger Stone, Trump's longest-serving political adviser, has been one of several right-wing critics to point out that she did not live in Virginia and accused her in heated language of committing mortgage fraud. Stone directed a social media post at her on Tuesday, warning, 'Look for the F.B.I. on your doorstep one morning soon.' A spokesman for James said she was 'focused every single day on protecting New Yorkers, especially as this administration weaponizes the federal government against the rule of law and the Constitution. She will not be intimidated by bullies — no matter who they are.' A press representative for the Federal Housing Finance Agency declined to comment. Grand Time Dear Diary: I was on a downtown A in November 2023 when I noticed a happy family sitting across from me. Mom, dad and the children all appeared to be having a grand time. It was relatively warm for the season, and dad was wearing shorts. He obviously did not care if anybody noticed that he was also wearing an ankle monitor on his left ankle. As a criminal defense lawyer, I certainly noticed. When I got off the train, I smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. He smiled back at me. — Robert Beecher Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Stefano Montali and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@ Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - Trump's continues the American tradition of abandoning allies
President Trump's betrayal of Ukraine takes me back to 60 years ago, when I first set foot in Vietnam as a journalist after covering the end of the era of anti-Americanism in Indonesia and the downfall of Sukarno. In the face of corruption, destructive political rivalries and the failure of U.S.-advised South Vietnamese forces, the Americans were having a deeper impact on the Vietnamese than many realized. It was not that 'we are winning,' as U.S. commanders claimed, but that American influence pervaded every corner of the culture of what we then called South Vietnam to differentiate it from the perceived enemy, North Vietnam. As I flew in and out of Vietnam on extended visits from Hong Kong and then Tokyo, then spent a couple of years writing a book in the venerable Hotel Majestic overlooking the Saigon River, I came to realize how much the Vietnamese not only counted on their American ally and benefactor but also how they trusted us. Whatever journalists might write on the horrors of the war, the disruption of civilized life and the unlikelihood of a happy ending, millions of South Vietnamese depended on the American forces in their midst. That's why it came as such an incredible shock when the Americans cut and ran 50 years ago, leaving the South Vietnamese to fend for themselves against the North Vietnamese. Who would have thought the Americans — big and rich, arrogant and often ignorant as they were — would not come to their rescue as the North Vietnamese poured southward, taking over town after town, base after base, until the fall of the Saigon regime on April 30, 1975? About 3 million people from South Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia and Laos fled over the next two decades — hundreds of thousands on fishing boats. Tens of thousands of them died. Likewise, as many as 2.8 million Cambodians were killed during more than three years of Khmer Rouge rule after the U.S. stopped showering the Phnom Penh regime with military aid and stopped the air support that had held the Khmer Rouge at bay. It is easy to rationalize all this suffering by saying the Americans should never have plunged into the war there in the first place. A significant number of Americans were anti-war — many sympathetic with the communist government in Hanoi. And the American bug-out ranks as the most humiliating defeat in American history until now. It set the pattern for debacles in which U.S. forces have withdrawn, fled or yielded to the enemy when politicians willing to compromise with foes at home and abroad tired of waging war. That's essentially what Trump has been doing in Ukraine: begging his friend, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, for negotiations that would sanctify Russia's gains — and set the stage for the next phase of a struggle in which the Russians would fight to take over all Ukraine, as they did during Tsarist rule and again during the communist era, with Joseph Stalin grabbing Ukraine's rich agricultural products, notably wheat, leaving millions to die. Ever since the defeat of the old Saigon regime, we've been facing more compromise and more defeat. As the winners of two world wars, having defended the southern 'half' of the Korean peninsula against North Korean and Chinese onslaughts, the U.S. has suffered setbacks in just about every significant conflict in which our presidents have invested arms or lives. Vietnam may rank as our worst total defeat, but we can't say we haven't lost a few since then. We are still living with the aftermath of George W. Bush's decision to order American forces into Iraq in 2003, overthrowing Saddam Hussein. I arrived in Baghdad in June 2004 on the day Bush transferred 'sovereignty' to a Baghdad regime that could hardly survive without the infusion of more than 100,000 American troops plus air support and arms. Now the regime is left with 2,000 or so U.S. military advisers offering clues on how to survive against its Iran-backed foes and remnants of the Islamic State. Trump, in a foretaste of what he's doing to Ukraine, abandoned the Kurds in southern Turkey and Syria to the mercies of the Turks during his first presidency. Next, though he loudly denies it, Trump shares responsibility with his much maligned successor, former President Joe Biden, for abandoning the Afghan regime that the U.S. had been defending for a decade. First, Trump pulled about 10,000 American troops out of Afghanistan and then made a deal with the Taliban to withdraw American support. As with his effort at bullying Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky into compliance, so he overlooked the former Afghan government. Trump loves to blame Biden for the fiasco of the final American pullout in August 2021, but Trump had already decided the war was over for the U.S. It would be nice to rationalize America's decisions, from Vietnam onward, to cut and run as necessary or inevitable, but we see the same scenario playing out in Ukraine. The war, as fought with tens of billions of dollars' worth of American arms and ammunition, is not likely to end well — at least, as far as Trump is concerned — so why not make a deal with Putin? Trump may claim that he's getting Putin to agree to settle for what the Russians have already carved out in the eastern and southeastern Donbas region, as well as Crimea, but we must assume Putin wants the rest of the country too — and will fight to get it on some spurious pretext. Or was this all a negotiating strategy, to bring Zelensky to the table? Ukraine and the U.S. will be meeting on Friday in D.C. to discuss a 'natural resources deal' as 'part of future security guarantees.' Interesting, but with Russia dead-set against 'peace-keepers' from European members of NATO in Ukraine guaranteeing the peace, we can be none too sure Putin will go for it. After Ukraine, Trump will face still more challenges, but it's questionable if he will reverse the trend. What if President Xi Jinping finally decides to take on the independent island state of Taiwan, 90 miles from Chinese mainland at the closest point? Or, what if Xi wants to attack the Philippines from bases the Chinese have built in the South China Sea, which China says is all theirs? Trump may make a show of challenging the Chinese in a terrible trade war, but we can be pretty sure that he would not order a strong defense of either Taiwan, which Biden assured we're 'committed' to defend, or the Philippines, with which Biden strengthened our alliance. For that matter, what about South Korea? Would Trump be likely to wage a second Korean War to protect it again? North Korea's hereditary dictator, Kim Jong Un, grandson of Kim Il Sung, founder of the regime that's now a 'nuclear power,' as Trump has called it, today threatens our side with much worse devastation. Trump has repeated traditional calls for 'Complete, Verifiable, Irreversible Dismantlement' of North Korea's nuclear program, but he's been 'in love' with Kim ever since their first summit in Singapore in June 2018. Let us not forget that he spoke during his first term of withdrawing most of America's 28,500 troops from the South, playing into Kim's strategy for reuniting the Korean peninsula on his own harsh terms. Kim's new relationship with Putin, to whom he is providing arms and troops, may pave the way for another Trump-Kim summit, if Trump forces a deal with Putin on Ukraine while excluding Ukraine's president from the process. Then look for Trump, after putting on a tough-guy show on slashing China's enormous trade surplus with the U.S., to kowtow before China's president, promising they would do 'everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!' Those words, eerily similar to his praise for Putin, don't foretell a stout defense of America's Asian friends against Chinese bullying and worse. Donald Kirk has been a journalist for more than 60 years, focusing much of his career on conflict in Asia and the Middle East, including as a correspondent for the Washington Star and Chicago Tribune. He is currently a freelance correspondent covering North and South Korea, and is the author of several books about Asian affairs. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
