Days after Donald Trump shrugged off his comments that he would be a “day one” dictator, the former president boasted about his friendship with North Korean’s 12-year dictator Kim Jong Un.
Trump took to Truth Social Wednesday to deny a report from Politico that he was backtracking on calls to denuclearize the authoritarian state.
“The only thing accurate in the story is that I do get along well with Kim Jong Un!” Trump wrote.
Under Kim's reign, North Korea has seen crimes against humanity that include prison gulags where citizens are tortured and executions of political enemies, a New York Times analysis notes.
Yet Politico’s report notes this years-long friendship with Kim has become a low-level punchline among conservative opponents hoping to claim the Republican nomination in 2024.
“Neither Joe Biden’s weakness nor Donald Trump’s friendliness to Kim have changed North Korea’s direction for the better,” said Nikki Haley in September. “These dictators only understand strength.”
ALSO READ: Trump golf course isn’t making the grade
According to Politico’s three anonymous sources, Trump appears to be weakening his stance on North Korea's arsenal of nuclear weapons, taking into consideration financial incentives to stop the regime from making new bombs.
Politico described this thinking as “a shift toward accommodating the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, with whom Trump developed an unusually friendly relationship during his time in office.”
This would also be a move away from standard U.S. policy that calls for denuclearization despite slim chances the argument will succeed, Politico notes.
“He wants a deal,” one anonymous source told Politico. “What type of deal? I don’t think he has thought that through.”
For his part, Trump took umbrage with Politico’s sources request to remain anonymous so that they could “speak freely.”
“A Fake News article in Politico, through anonymous sources (as usual!), states that my views on Nuclear Weapons in North Korea have softened,” Trump wrote.
“This is a made up story, DISINFORMATION, put out by Democrat Operatives in order to mislead and confuse.”
