Former U.S. President Donald Trump publicly empathized with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un after the authoritarian state’s recent missile tests.
Pointing to his close relationship with the dictator, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, on Wednesday to defend the tests and share his perspective on Kim’s circumstances.
Kim Jung Un of North Korea, who I got to know and got along with very well during my years as President, is not happy with the U.S. and South Korea doing big training and air exercises together. He feels threatened. Even I would constantly complain that South Korea pays us very little to do these extremely expensive and provocative drills. It’s really ridiculous. We have 35,000 in jeopardy soldiers there, I had a deal for full payment to us, $Billions, and Biden gave it away. Such a shame!!!
This isn’t the first time Trump has publicly touted his close relationship with Kim.
The former president’s relationship with Kim, who he once dubbed as “Rocket Man,” began with their first meeting in 2018. Trump would go on to describe their ensuing messages to each other as “love letters,” with Kim describing their relationship as “reminiscent of a scene from a fantasy film.”
Trump later confirmed these statements when speaking at a 2018 rally in West Virginia.
“I was being really tough and so was he. And we’d go back and forth, and then we fell in love, OK? No, really. He wrote beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love,” he said.”
Trump’s statement follows closely after North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Saturday and two short-range ballistic missiles on Monday.
While the ICBM landed in the East Sea, the weapon tests were a warning against increased South Korean and U.S. military exercises. North Korea confirmed the missile tests were a warning and threatened to use the Pacific as a “firing range.”
In response, joint air drills were…
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