Conservative columnist: Kim ‘really fleeced’ Trump in nuke talks

Conservative columnist Max Boot said Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has “fleeced” President Trump in the nuclear talks.

“I mean, Vladimir Putin has to be licking his chops at this point because he’s seen the way that Kim Jong Un — this young, untested dictator — has really fleeced Donald Trump,” Boot said during an appearance on CNN’s “New Day.”

“This has been a master class in self-deception, the way that Donald Trump convinced himself that North Korea wants to disarm. And so far, he’s not willing to receive any evidence to the contrary,” he added.

{mosads}Boot, who is a also a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted that Trump has been much more critical of Kim than he has of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Boot has said he altered his party registration to “independent” after Trump’s 2016 victory and in a recent Washington Post column said he hopes the Democrats win majorities in both the House and the Senate in the upcoming midterms.

His comments come as Trump prepares to meet this week with members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels and for next week’s summit with Putin in Finland.

Boot, who advised the presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in 2016, said Putin, too, will fleece Trump.

“And so he is just ready to be fleeced here by Vladimir Putin. And Putin is ready to take advantage of this moment,” he said.

“So I think there’s real cause for concern for anybody who cares about the future of the western alliance.”

–Jonathan Easley contributed to this report, which was updated at 10:45 a.m.