Loyalty must not come before practicality

Kim Hyun-ki
The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

Gut instinct can work better than talent and even rationality. The sixth sense of two individuals — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci — has changed the dynamics of the U.S. presidential election.

Trump — a graduate of the New York Military Academy — showed extraordinary agility and physics for a 78-year-old man as he instinctively ducked upon the sound of a gunshot during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday. Upon the literal experience with the kiss of death after the bullet missed his skull by inches, Trump bounced back on his feet and raised his fist shouting “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Anyone else — President Joe Biden, for one — could have hardly spared a moment before being carried off by the security guard.

Trump has been credited for an array of instinctual riches — an instinct for destructiveness and acrimony, for instance — which were mostly negative during his first presidential term. We have all learned from the shooting incident that his biggest instinctive asset is “political genes.”

Vucci, a Pulitzer Prize winner of 2021, also moved on his intuition. Even at the moment of mayhem, he calmly caught a historically iconic picture from a perfect angle to show Trump standing bloodied and defiant with his fist in the air just below the stars and stripes flying vividly against a bright blue sky. Luck must have been with Trump and Vucci on that day as the latter’s image clearly stood out among other similar photos taken crazily by other photographers at that moment.

In less than two hours after the shooting, at 7:05 a.m. in Korea, newly elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was the first among international leaders to respond to the horrific incident. He wrote on social media that he was “appalled by the shocking scenes” and stressed “political violence has no place in our societies.” Other leaders immediately followed with similar comments — Australia, Japan, and others. Korea acted distinctively late. President Yoon Suk Yeol wrote a message on social media the next day, one hour after a video was released showing Trump existing from his jet at Newark Airport, New Jersey, on Sunday after getting treatment for his wounds at a medical center in Pennsylvania. The Korean response was obviously missing from media reports in the United States.

Given his hasty temperament, a message from the Korean president would not sit well with Trump. Why so late? If Yoon intentionally responded late to not upset Biden, he has clearly miscalculated. To Trump, a personal rapport with himself comes above state-to-state traditional alliances. Japan, usually careful, acted swiftly.

Moral hazard is suspected of the presidential office if it responded late because it was the weekend and preoccupied with presidential schedules. Can a three-sentence statement take so long? The presidential office as well as the Foreign Ministry obviously lack both intuition and skills.

I personally do not think the assassination attempt has galvanized Trump’s winning chance. The U.S. presidential election is a contest of votes between conservatives and progressives. The incident could have united the conservative front, but at the same time can do the same for the liberal front. Also, there is the October factor. Something usually blows up before the November vote day. In 2016, it was the FBI’s release of Hillary Clinton’s emails for investigations, and in 2020, it was Trump catching the Covid-19 virus.

Personal attachment aside, the government must pay closer attention to Trump. There are talks that President Yoon’s aides are reluctant to move because of his close relationship with Biden. In international politics, loyalty must not come before practicality.