It looks like no one has the courage to tell you -- but we -- your supporters since July 4, 2015 -- will do so. You must cease calling bloody dictator, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un a “smart cookie” and saying you’d be “honored to meet him.” Flattery will get him everywhere and you nowhere. You must also not appease another bloody dictator in the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. If NSA General H.R. McMaster and Secretary of Defense General James Mattis, already told you this, you should have listened. Finally, you should not be afraid of being critical of Russia’s authoritarian leader, Vladimir Putin when he deserves it, although he is one leader with whom you should meet. But be sure if you meet him that you are really well briefed! You cannot wing it.

You are a very energetic leader with great business experience. But in your heart of hearts you must know that you are not a student of history and that you are only just learning about national security and foreign policy. You will not learn as much as people who have studied these subjects for thirty or forty years by just watching Fox News or reading your Presidential Daily Briefings. You need to consult with leading historians and experts. We have suggested that Obama’s strategic patience should be replaced with strategic savvy. Translated, that means being smart and practical, politically, and geopolitically, or as General Mattis put it, “There are hunters and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.”

Kim Jong-un, who resents any challenge that would threaten his personal rule, is truly dangerous. He killed his uncle, reportedly throwing his body to vicious dogs. Neville Chamberlain also tried to work out peace with another “smart cookie,” Adolf Hitler. Instead of “peace in our time,” we got WWII and over 50 million dead. As Chamberlain’s successor, Winston Churchill, put it, “An appeaser is someone who hopes a crocodile will eat him last.” Understand that even if there is no ICBM that can presently reach our homeland from North Korea, nuclear devices can be carried on ships. In both 2013 and 2014, North Korean ships were caught trading arms with Cuba via the Panama Canal. They cannot be trusted not to trade with our enemies.

We have called North Korea’s continued game, “Waltz me around again Willy.” It always involves threats and getting a high level person to come and “negotiate.” Recently, we wrote an article showing how even students of history, like two secretaries of state, Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice have pursued misguided appeasement of the North Korean dictator’s father. They had the same illusions you likely do of a new opening with this country. For this reason Do not meet with him. Big mistake! It will just legitimize him. With this killer there is no way you can reach a genuine rapprochement. The only sensible policy is to insist on his ceasing all nuclear testing and developing his ICBM’s. Remember too that the Iranian mullahs are watching what you say and do.

You have a terrific strategy for making our country great again by strengthening our borders, dealing with our catastrophic insolvency, rebuilding our military and American power to advance our vital national interests abroad. But the perception of the American people is being shaped by opinionated newscasters with strident voices. Your unguarded and silly comments about the North Korean and Philippine dictators are clearly undermining you at home and abroad and playing into the fake news which seeks to paint you as an unbalanced dictator yourself. If you hope to unite this country, the last thing you want to do is give grist to the mills of the malignant.