Friday morning outside the White House, President Donald Trump answered an array of questions from reporters and unsurprisingly prominent in the exchanges was the topic of North Korea. Trump recently met with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, and in conjunction with that, over recent months, Trump has seemingly decided to accept the North Korean leader instead of dismissing him as he did towards the beginning of his administration.
A reporter asked Trump about this change of heart and why he, as a president of the United States, has decided to be open and welcoming to a murderous dictator on Friday.
Trump responded by painting the situation as if the only other option is nuclear war.
He said:
‘You know why? Because I don’t want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family.’
Why does he think that the only way to get out of a possible future nuclear war is to ignore substantial human rights violations that have long come to define the sitting North Korean regime, the leadership of which has been passed down through three generations of the same family at this point? How does he think that the only two options are inviting Kim Jong Un to the White House, as he has expressed an openness to, or watching nuclear weapons fall on the United States?
It’s one thing to hold a purely practical summit with the leader of a power like North Korea. Such meetings between Western interests and Iranian interests led to the creation of the Iran nuclear deal that — at least until Trump withdrew the U.S. from it recently — kept the Iranian nuclear program solidly in check.
It’s another thing entirely for Trump to go all in and tout the “special bond” he has forged with the current North Korean leader, offering heaps of personal praise for the murderous dictator all along the way.
He said at one point recently, speaking of Kim Jong Un:
‘He’s a tough guy. Hey, when you take over a country, tough country, tough people, and you take it over from your father — I don’t care who you are, what you are, how much of an advantage you have, if you could do that at 27-years old, I mean, that’s 1 in 10,000 that could do that. He’s a very smart guy.’
BAIER: Kim Jong Un is “clearly executing people.”
TRUMP: “He’s a tough guy. Hey, when you take over a country, tough country, tough people, and you take it over from your father … if you could do that at 27-years old, I mean, that’s 1 in 10,000 that could do that.” (via FOX) pic.twitter.com/R8FfkREDYX
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 13, 2018
To top it all off, Trump acted Friday while speaking to reporters as though he had never done anything to exacerbate the issue of looming nuclear war and had instead only been an overwhelming force for peace.
He told reporters:
‘When I came in, people thought we were probably going to war with North Korea. If we did, millions of people would have been killed… I came in, that was what I inherited… I did a great job this weekend.’
Watch the video below.
Q: “You spoke passionately about the circumstances that led to Otto Warmbier’s death. In the same breath, you’re defending now Kim Jong Un’s human rights records. How can you do that?”
TRUMP: “You know why? I don’t want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family.” (FOX) pic.twitter.com/4FR504MbM1
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 15, 2018
Remember, this is the guy whose rhetoric gave the North Koreans an opportunity to claim to have plans to launch an attack on the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. He himself could be said to have been threatening war and attack at times. He said at one point that he would make “fire and fury” rain down upon the North Koreans if need be; he said at another point, while speaking before the United Nations that he would “totally destroy” North Korea if given the opportunity.
Even still, Trump got in front of cameras on Friday and said the above. He continues to execute a reality-disconnected foreign policy.
Featured Image via screenshot from the video
