It did not matter that Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and John Kelly never let Trump out of their sight in Singapore. In the end, he did what he came to do while they were sitting right next to him and none of them could stop him. Soon after landing, in fact, when Pompeo briefed the president on the pre-summit negotiations and acknowledged they were at an “impasse,” Trump revealed his plan.[55] He would declare a great diplomatic coup regardless of what actually happened. “This is an exercise in publicity,” Trump told his team, vowing that Singapore would “be a success no matter what.”[56]
