Trump Praises ‘Unthreatening and Respectful’ Kim Jong Un, Urges Pete Hegseth to Scale Back Military Exercises Near North Korea
AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File
President Donald Trump said he ordered Pete Hegseth to significantly reduce military exercises near North Korea because the country has been”unthreatening and respectful” during his presidency, thanks to his “very good relationship” with the country’s communist dictator Kim Jong Un.
The president shared the news in a Sunday post on Truth Social.
Trump said conducting scheduled joint military exercises with South Korea would be “totally inappropriate and hostile” towards North Korea, but since it was too late to scrap them altogether, he told Hegseth to “substantially reduce” them. He also bashed South Korea a bit for telling him “No thanks!” — as Trump put it — when the president asked if they wanted to help with the Iran war.
Here is Trump’s full post:
Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea. These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.
Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises! While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, “No thanks!” Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
Trump’s post on Sunday adds to the bizarre history between him and the North Korean Dictator.
The president famously dubbed Kim “Rocket Man” during his first term and said he was on a “suicide mission” in 2017 by conducting nuclear tests, with Trump saying the U.S. could “totally destroy” the rogue nation with ease.
Their relationship has improved since then, with Trump saying Kim was “very honorable” in 2018, and later during his 2024 campaign, saying he wanted to take the dictator to a Yankees game.
“All he wants to do is buy nuclear weapons and make them,” Trump told a Michigan crowd at the time. “I said, ‘Just relax. Chill. You got enough. You got so much nuclear weapons, so much.’ I said, ‘Just relax. Go to a nice — let’s go to a baseball game. I’ll show you what a baseball [is].’ We’ll go watch the Yankees.”
The post Trump Praises ‘Unthreatening and Respectful’ Kim Jong Un, Urges Pete Hegseth to Scale Back Military Exercises Near North Korea first appeared on Mediaite.