Former NBA star Dennis ‘The Worm’ Rodman arrived in Singapore late Monday night, hours before President Donald Trump is set to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un for the first time.
Rodman emerged from the baggage claim area at Changi airport around midnight and told reporters he wasn’t sure if he would meet Kim.
Last week the prolific rebounder, who has traveled to North Korea at least five times, said he would ‘give whatever support is needed’ to his ‘friends’ – meaning both Trump and Kim.
White House officials have said Rodman will play no official role in the diplomatic negotiations. Trump said last week that Rodman had not been invited to the summit.
Retired NBA player Dennis Rodman arrived in Singapore just after midnight local time, reaping the publicity associated with being one of few westerners to spend time with KimJong-un; the North Korean despot is meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday for nuclear talks
Rodman has been to Pyongyang at least five times, and once sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to the brutal dictator and presented him with a copy of Trump’s book ‘The Art of the Deal’
Kim, pictured walking to the Jubilee bridge at the Esplanade in Singapore on Monday, aims to become a nuclear power but has incurred the sting of near-global economic sanctions in the process
Trump has promised that the U.S. will keep up his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Kim until he completely abandons his nuclear weapons program
He is one of the few westerners to have met the North Korean leader on visits to the capital city Pyongyang.
‘Thanks to my loyal sponsors from @potcoin and my team at @Prince_Mrketing, I will be flying to Singapore for the historical Summit,’ the former Chicago Bulls forward tweeted late Friday.
PotCoin is a cryptocurrency invented to support the cannabis trade.
Trump told reporters Thursday that he wasn’t aware the 6-foot-7 former NBC star would be in the neighborhood for the nuclear disarmament summit.
‘Dennis Rodman? No. I didn’t know about Dennis,’ he said in the Oval Office.
‘He was not invited, but he’s a nice guy. I like him,’ Trump added.
Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley was less diplomatic, making it clear in a Fox News Channel interview that Trump planned to manage just fine without the tattooed and lip-ringed athlete hanging around.
‘We have a schedule set of what we’d like to see accomplished, and what we want is denuclearization of the peninsula,’ Gidley said on the ‘Fox & Friends’ program. ‘That’s been what the president has been talking about – verifiable, irreversible denuclearization.’
‘I don’t know what part the best rebounder in basketball has to play in that.’
Kim and Rodman have famously built a bizarre friendship, and the former basketball player brought the crutal despot a copy of ‘The Art of the Deal’ for his birthday last year.
That trip was also sponsored byPotCoin
In 2013 the two-time ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ contestant declared Kim was was his ‘friend for life.’ That came after three visits to Pyongyang that year, including one organized by the Harlem Globetrotters.
Rodman has previously claimed he was partly responsible for easing the tension between Trump and the Kim regime.
The athlete told TMZ in April that Kim has had ‘a change of heart’ about his feelings toward Trump and the U.S.
‘I don’t want to sit here and say, I did this and I did that. That’s not my intention,’ Rodman said, adding that his intention was to go to the North and be an ambassador.
In March, Rodman tweeted a photoshopped picture of his friend Kim, wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat.
‘Hoping for this after my two friends and leaders meet next month #Peace #Love #NotWar #Diplomacy,’ Rodman wrote.
In a December 2017 interview with Stephen Colbert, Rodman offered to work as an envoy to North Korea.
‘I’m close enough to him to the fact that he can discuss anything with me,’ he said.
‘But the deal is, I don’t discuss politics because that’s not my job. My job is to be a human being, to try and connect us with him.’
Rodman plans to be in Singapore when Trump and Kim meet, but the White House doesn’t wnat him underfoot to complicate the delicate negotiations
‘Listen, he’s great on the court, but I think the negotiation should best be left to those who are good at it – and President Trump is the best,’ White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said of Rodman
Rodman said last month that he has high hopes for the summit between the U.S. and North Korea, and claims some credit for the two leaders together since he has visited Kim five times in Pyongyang
Rodman once sand Happy Birthday to the vicious despot and brought him a copy of Trump’s book ‘The Art of the Deal’ as a present
The Harlem Globetrotters organized a trip to North Korea in January 2014 for an exhibition basketball game between American and North Korean players to celebrate Kim Jong-un’s birthday