President Trump said Tuesday that he sometimes “felt foolish” using harsh rhetoric to condemn North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un but felt he had to do it to bring the countries together.
“I think the rhetoric — I hated to do it, sometimes I felt foolish doing it, but we had no choice,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity, according to excerpts of an interview to air Tuesday night.
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Trump, who once labeled North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “little rocket man” and vowed to bring “fire and fury” on North Korea if it threatened the United States, criticized past administrations for not responding to Pyongyang’s own tough rhetoric.
If the North Korea did something “very bad and very threatening and horrible,” past presidents just wouldn’t respond, Trump said in the interview following his summit in Singapore with Kim.
“That’s not the answer. That’s not what you have to do,” Trump said.
Trump acknowledged during a Tuesday press conference that he might end up being wrong one day about trusting the North Korean leader.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of an excuse,” Trump said with a smile.
Trump praised the North Korean leader after the summit and said the people “love” Kim despite previous statements condemning the regime’s alleged human rights abuses.
During a Tuesday interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulous, Trump said he can only judge Kim based on their meeting.
“I mean, this is what we have, and this is where we are, and I can only tell you from my experience, and I met him. I’ve spoken with him, and I’ve met him,” Trump said.