THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

As Cheeto Mussolini keeps his chode base all fired up with his high school treats to the other bad haired dictator in North Korea, the military that would be carrying out his dire threats is doing nothing out of the ordinary.

President Trump continued to beat war drums on Friday against North Korea and, unexpectedly, said he would consider a military option to deal with an unrelated crisis in Venezuela. But though he declared that the armed forces were “locked and loaded,” there were no indications of imminent action in either part of the world.

For all the bellicose language emerging from the president’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., the United States military was taking no visible steps to prepare for a strike against North Korea or Venezuela. The Pentagon reported no new ships being sent toward the Korean Peninsula or forces being mobilized, nor were there moves to begin evacuating any of the tens of thousands of Americans living in South Korea.

The contrast between the heated words and the lack of apparent preparations suggested that Mr. Trump may still be counting on a resolution to the standoff with North Korea as it works to develop a nuclear arsenal capable of reaching the United States. After escalating his rhetoric against North Korea twice on Friday, Mr. Trump emerged from a late-afternoon meeting with his national security team offering a somewhat more restrained message, vowing to give diplomacy a chance.

“Hopefully it’ll all work out,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump, that I can tell you. Hopefully it’ll all work out, but this has been going on for many years.”

Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, who traveled to New Jersey on Friday to brief Mr. Trump after returning from Asia, said the president’s tough language was part of an overall strategy intended to bring North Korea to the negotiating table.

So Cheeto hopes his words will scare Kim Jong Pudge the same way it has scared the rest of us. Then when Kim blinks, Cheeto will brag about what a great negotiator he is. Then he can concentrat on his wars with Iran and Venezuela.