President Trump took a jab at the media on Tuesday in Singapore as he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un headed into their historic meeting.
“The press, they never stop,” Trump told Kim, as reporters yelled out questions to the two leaders.
Trump and Kim met in person for the first time Monday after months of back-and-forth, in the first meeting in history between a North Korean leader and a sitting U.S. president.
Trump has long criticized the media, even laying into American reporters while out of the country. At the Group of Seven summit in Quebec last week, Trump responded to a CNN reporter’s question by calling his network “fake news.”
The Associated Press reported that the Trump administration restricted journalists’ access to multiple portions of the summit, including photo opportunities, breaking long-standing traditions on covering the commander in chief overseas.
“AP is troubled by the decision to curb media access at the Singapore summit,” said the news outlet’s director of media relations, Lauren Easton. “It is a disservice to the public, which deserves prompt, accurate and complete reporting on what may be one of the president’s most consequential meetings.”
{mosads}Trump and Kim shook hands and briefly sat down in front of reporters before heading into their one-on-one meeting.
“We’re going to have a great discussion and I think tremendous success,” Trump said. “We’re going to be tremendously successful, and it’s my honor, and we will have a terrific relationship.”
Kim, through a translator, spoke of the “obstacles” that had to be overcome to reach the day of the summit.
“I’ll tell you when they’re out,” Trump said to Kim, apparently referring to the press in the room.
Later, ahead of a working lunch with Kim and both men’s advisers, Trump told photographers and cameramen from Singapore’s “Host TV” to be sure they captured the attendees’ good side.
“Getting a good picture everybody?” Trump asked. “So we look nice and handsome and thin? Perfect.”
— Updated at 12:40 a.m.