WHOSE IDEA WAS "FIRE AND FURY"?

I'm sure this is fine:

President Trump threatened on Tuesday to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea if it endangers the United States as tensions with the isolated nuclear-armed state grow into perhaps the most serious foreign policy challenge yet in his young administration.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening beyond a normal state and as I said they will be met with fire and fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

Trump enjoys acting like a tough guy, but he doesn't sound natural saying "fire and fury" (or "best not," for that matter). He starts out saying this as if he's memorized it, but the swagger gets lost as he sneaks glances at his cheat sheet several times. (Trust me -- he'll never learn to read a prepared statement convincingly.)



Who wrote this? My money's on Stephen Miller. He's fond of hyperbole such as "the likes of which this world has never seen before" -- here he is on Face the Nation in February, after a North Korean missile test, promising that the result of Trump's proposed military buildup will be that "once again we will have unquestioned military strength beyond anything anyone can imagine."



Now, a question from Glenn Thrush of The New York Times:

Here's a question so obvious no one's asking it: Why did Trump read a statement instead of Mattis or McMaster?

— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) August 8, 2017

Trump likes generals a lot, but I'm sure he'd very much dislike being upstaged by one. If we're on the verge of war, Trump has to be seen as the tough guy -- he can't imagine stepping back and letting others talk. He feels he has to be the face of this the same way he felt he had to elbow his way to the front in that group photo at the NATO summit.

Terrified yet?