THE 2019 NORTH KOREA MISSION THAT WENT COMPLETELY OFF THE RAILS

In 2019, Donald Trump wanted leverage. Not diplomacy, not strategy—leverage. So the orange cockwomble personally signed off on a covert mission that now stands as one of the ugliest stains on modern U.S. special operations. The plan was meant to give him an intelligence edge before his summit with Kim Jong-un. What it produced was blood in the water, a cover-up, and silence from Congress.

THE PLAN THAT NEVER STOOD A CHANCE

SEAL Team 6’s Red Squadron—the same men who tracked down bin Laden—were ordered into North Korea. Launched from a nuclear sub, they would creep ashore in mini-subs, slip through the surf, and plant a device to intercept Kim’s communications.

It was high-risk theater, conceived less as strategy than as Trump’s idea of a “win.” The Hanoi summit was weeks away. If he couldn’t out-negotiate Kim, maybe he could cheat.

THE CIVILIANS WHO BECAME TARGETS

Then came the small fishing boat. Just men diving for shellfish, wearing wetsuits chilled by icy water. Their heat signatures invisible to night-vision goggles, their presence impossible to detect without live drone feeds—which the SEALs didn’t have.

Believing they’d stumbled on a security patrol, the operators opened fire. Two or three civilians died in seconds. Trump’s intelligence coup collapsed into a pointless slaughter.

THE GRISLY AFTERMATH

Realizing their mistake, the SEALs dragged the bodies from the water. According to officials who later spoke to reporters, they even punctured the victims’ lungs so the corpses would sink. No device was planted. No intelligence was gathered. Only dead fishermen carried down into black water so the regime wouldn’t find them.

This is what “America First” looked like in practice: civilians killed to preserve the image of a president addicted to pageantry.

THE WHITEWASH

Inside the Pentagon, the mission was sanitized. Military reviews called the killings “unfortunate occurrences” that could not have been avoided. The findings were classified. Several of the operators involved were later promoted.

And Trump’s White House? It kept Congress in the dark. The very committees charged with oversight were denied knowledge of what had happened. Legal experts now say that secrecy may itself have been a violation of federal law.

THE TRUTH OF 2019

On television, Trump was parading across the DMZ, selling the illusion of historic statesmanship. Off camera, American forces had killed unarmed civilians on his orders and concealed their bodies beneath the waves.

That’s the truth of 2019: not strength, not diplomacy, not “art of the deal.” Just needless death, bureaucratic cowardice, and a president so consumed with image that he turned one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints into his private stage.

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