For example, the standard bearer for this elite, and Trump's likely Democratic opponent for president, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sneered at Trump's "bizarre fascination with foreign strongmen."

Imagine actually talking to difficult countries, as Ronald Reagan successfully did with the Soviet Union! Trump knows that it takes a tough and effective leader to use negotiation and diplomacy instead of the reflexive use of military force, which has marked the weak and insecure presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Trump's high-level negotiation likely would be more successful in limiting or getting rid of North Korea's nuclear program than past, unsuccessful lower-level U.S. bargaining with the regime over the same issue.

With U.S. forces stationed in South Korea, Kim Jong Un is paranoid of a combined, U.S.-South Korean attack on his country. The main reason that he has likely developed nuclear weapons is to deter such an attack. A President Trump speaking to him personally might ease these fears significantly.

Also dismissed by the foreign policy elite is Trump's strategy of putting pressure on China, North Korea's only ally, to prod Kim to negotiate away his nuclear program. Trump said in a recent media interview: "I would put a lot of pressure on China because economically we have tremendous power over China."

The foreign policy elite notes that despite recent Chinese annoyance with North Korean nuclear and missile tests, and China's agreement to impose some economic sanctions on the regime, it still props up the always rickety North Korean autocracy with supplies of energy and other vital goods over their common border. Thus, the elite doubts that China will change this behavior.