Trump: ‘I love’ that Hawaii officials took responsibility for false missile alert

President Trump made his first public comments since the false alarm of a ballistic missile heading toward Hawaii, saying he thought it was “terrific” that the state took responsibility for the error.

“That was a state thing but we are going to now get involved with them. I love that they took responsibility. They took total responsibility,” Trump told reporters Sunday.

{mosads}“But we are going to get involved. Their attitude and their — I think it is terrific. They took responsibility. They made a mistake,” he continued.

When asked what he will do to prevent a similar false alert from taking place, Trump didn’t answer directly but said, “We hope it won’t happen again.

“Part of it is people are on edge, but maybe eventually we will solve the problem so they won’t have to be so on edge,” Trump said.

He added that he will “see what happens with North Korea.”

“We have great talks going on. The Olympics, you know about. A lot of things can happen,” Trump said.

The false alert sparked mass confusion and panic across the state when it was sent Saturday. State officials took nearly 40 minutes to correct the alarm.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) said the false alert was sent when an employee accidentally pushed the wrong button during a shift change.

The White House said that the alert was “purely a state exercise” despite it being revealed to be an accident.

The alert came amid heightened tensions with North Korea. Trump has repeatedly threatened the country since taking office over its nuclear weapons tests.

In turn, North Korea has continued to test missiles and threatened to strike the U.S.