Warren: Trump facing North Korea summit with ‘decimated’ State Dept.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in an interview broadcast early Sunday that she is “very worried” that North Korean leaders will take advantage of President Trump in an unprecedented summit, pointing to a “decimated” State Department.

“Let’s just start with what the Trump administration has done. They’re moving toward diplomacy. I think that’s a really good move. There is no military-only solution to the problems presented by North Korea,” Warren said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked if Trumps decision to accept the invitation to meet with Kim Jong Un gives the North Korean leader and the regime in Pyongyang too much legitimacy.

“But these are very complex negotiations, and what I’m concerned about in these negotiations is we have a State Department that’s just been decimated. We don’t have an ambassador right now to South Korea. We don’t have an assistant secretary for this whole region,” she added.

“And that really matters, because it means you don’t have the people who understand the economics, who speak the language, who know the history, in order to kind of have that country to country before the leaders meet,” she added.

“I want to see our president succeed, because if he succeeds America succeeds. The world is safer.”

Warren also said, however, that she is “very worried” that the North Korean leaders will “take advantage” of Trump.

“[The] leaders of North Korea, for a very long time, the Kim family, have wanted to meet face-to-face with a U.S. president. That is a win for them. It legitimizes, in their view, their dictatorship and legitimizes their nuclear weapons program.”

The White House announced late last Thursday that Trump would accept an invitation to meet face-to-face with Kim, following months of insults and threats between the two leaders.

Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania said that he anticipates “tremendous success” in his meeting with Kim.

“I think North Korea is going to go very well,” he said Saturday evening. “I think we will have tremendous success … they promised they wouldn’t be shooting off missiles in the meantime, and they’re looking to de-nuke. They’re gonna be great.”