A walk on the wild side and a photo that shocked the world

In the 13th instalment of our series recapping an unprecedented presidency, Joe Sommerlad looks at a last-minute U-turn, a genuinely historic gesture and a disastrous Fourth of July

Trump becomes the first incumbent US president to enter North Korea in June 2019 (Getty)

Tensions between the US and Iran had rumbled on ever since Donald Trump’s unwise withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear accord.

The administration had designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organisation in April 2019 and blamed Tehran for attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz in May.

But the rift finally threatened to burst into conflict when the Revolutionary Guard shot down a US Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk surveillance drone on 20 June, with General Hossein Salami saying it had “violated Iranian airspace”.