President Trump is saying some mighty strange things since the end of his summit with Kim Jong-un, during a period of time when Trump was totally alone with the North Korean dictator for several hours.  Could Trump have been swapped for a North Korean lookalike?

Consider some of Trump's bizarre statements about the North Korean leader:

Kim Jong Un is not just "very talented" but also is a "very smart negotiator" who "loves his country very much," President Trump said after spending about five hours with Kim during Tuesday's summit.  As proof of the young leader's prodigious ability, Trump noted that Kim had been able to run North Korea from the age of 26, "and run it tough," in a way that few people could.

This is the man Trump praised as more talented than "one out of ten thousand people":

Kim Jong Un has built a reputation for dispatching with extreme prejudice all those who cross him.  A confirmed favorite tactic, blowing people away with anti-aircraft guns, leave victims unrecognizable.  Kim Jong Nam, seen as a successor to Kim should a coup take place, was sprayed in the face with VX nerve agent by two women as he prepared to catch a flight from Kuala Lampur to Macau.  Perhaps the most frightening method of execution ordered by the 33-year-old, third-generation dictator is allowing a pack of starving dogs to devour enemies.  In one notable case, the victim was purportedly Kim's own uncle.

President Trump incredibly said Kim Jong-un is loved by his people, a slave race whom Kim has massacred at will:

Mr. Kim rules with extreme brutality, making his nation among the worst human rights violators in the world.

In North Korea, these crimes "entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation," concluded a 2014 United Nations report that examined North Korea.  Prisoners are starved, forced to work, tortured and raped.  Reproductive rights are denied through forced abortions and infanticide.  Some are executed – sometimes in public.

Even though North Korea deceived us during our last nuclear deal, Trump is convinced that the butcher of North Korea is in earnest this time:

"I think, honestly, I think he's going to do these things," Mr. Trump insisted.  "I may be wrong.  I mean, I may stand before you in six months and say, 'Hey, I was wrong.'"  He paused a moment, realizing how out of character that would be.

"I don't know that I'll ever admit that," he added, "but I'll find some kind of an excuse."

Trump got Kim Jong-un to agree to the principle of nuclear disarmament, at some undefined point in the future, in return for an immediate concession: the end of our military exercises with South Korea.  Given how North Korea lied to us the last time we did a deal with it, the granting of a concession now in return for a promise to be fulfilled later is not something a smart American president would have agreed to.

Can you take Trump seriously when he says things like this?

"I said – when I first started, I said, 'Where do the bombers come from?'  'Guam.  Nearby.'  I said, 'Oh, great, nearby.  Where's nearby?'  'Six and a half hours.'  Six and a half hours – that's a long time for these big massive planes to be flying to South Korea to practice and then drop bombs all over the place, and then go back to Guam.  I know a lot about airplanes; it's very expensive.  And I didn't like it."

Does an American president talk like this?  If Obama said how much he admired Kim or how expensive it was to fly bombers, we would ridicule him endlessly.  But because it is Trump saying these ridiculous things, Republicans are all saying how brilliant Trump is.

No, I am not seriously suggesting that Trump has been replaced by a duplicate, but I am suggesting that his man-crush for a genocidal dictator is a national embarrassment.  And don't tell me it's brilliant four-dimensional chess;  the leader of the free world shouldn't be gushing over a killer with the blood of his own people on his hands.  You can make deals with unpleasant people without becoming president of their fan clubs.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.

Image by Shealah Craighead, Department of Defense.