President Donald Trump says he was misquoted by a news outlet claiming he said he has a positive relationship with Kim Jong-un.
Trump argued Sunday in a set of furious tweets that he said ‘I’d’ and the Wall Street Journal misquoted him on purpose.
‘Obviously I didn’t say that. I said “I’d have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un,” a big difference,’ Trump stated. ‘They knew exactly what I said and meant. They just wanted a story. FAKE NEWS!”
President Donald Trump says he was misquoted by a news outlet claiming he said he has a positive relationship with Kim Jong-un
Trump argued Sunday in a set of furious tweets that he said ‘I’d’ and the Wall Street Journal misquoted him on purpose
The president’s spokeswoman had also disputed the quote, tweeting on Saturday night that Trump had said I’d – and offering an audio recording of Trump talking about Kim in the interview to prove it.
In the audio, Trump did appear to be saying ‘I’d’ rather than ‘I’ as the Journal first reported.
‘President Trump said, I’D probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un of North Korea. I’D — I’D — I’D. NOT I!’ a message from Sanders said.
The tweet declared the Wall Street Journal piece ‘FAKE NEWS’ in bold white letters in a graphic that led with a red banner.
The news outlet also released audio from the interview on Twitter as the White House went on the assault nearly two days after the Journal’s original piece.
The president’s spokeswoman had also disputed the quote, tweeting on Saturday night that Trump had said I’d
‘We have reviewed the audio from our interview with President Trump, as well as the transcript provided by an external service, and stand by what we reported,’ it said in a tweet that accompanied its clip and a transcript.
The Wall Street Journal suggested Thursday that Trump had been in contact with North Korea’s reclusive dictator after an interview in the Oval Office where the president would not say whether he’d talked to him but reportedly claimed: ‘I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.’
‘I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised,’ Trump is said to have stated.
Playing coy, the president also said, ‘I don’t want to comment on it. I’m not saying I have or haven’t. I just don’t want to comment.’
The White House also offered an audio recording of Trump talking about Kim in the interview to prove he said ‘I’d’
The U.S. does not have formal diplomatic relations with North Korea. It’s been nearly a decade since the nations have held high -evel talks.
The Trump administration in November categorized North Korea as a state sponsor of terror, putting it back on the United States’ list of sworn enemies.
It has successfully pressed at the United Nations for strict sanctions that have almost totally isolated the rogue regime.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in October that the U.S. has back channel communications with North Korea. ‘We have lines of communication to Pyongyang—we’re not in a dark situation, a blackout,’ he stated.
Trump then harangued him for it publicly, saying that Tillerson was ‘wasting his time trying to negotiate’ with Kim.
South Korea was opening up high-level talks last week with North Korea ahead of the Winter Olympics, which will be held on the peninsula in February.
Addressing the thaw in tensions in his first Cabinet meeting of the new year, Trump said he’d just spoken to South Korean President Moon Jae-in and he’s ‘very thankful for what we’ve done.’
‘He felt that the original — that the initial talk was extremely good. Had a lot of good comment,’ Trump said. ‘We’ll see where it goes. He’s very thankful for what we’ve done.’
Trump would not say whether he’d ever talked to Kim on Thursday – but he said in November he’d like them to be friends
Trump remarked, ‘Who knows where it leads.’ Adding, ‘Hopefully, it will lead to success for the world — not just for our country, but for the world. And we’ll be seeing over the next number of weeks and months what happens.’
Trump has repeatedly derided Kim as ‘Little Rocket Man’ and threatened him with the ‘might’ of the U.S. military.
In August, Trump angrily threatened North Korea with ‘fire and fury’ if Kim continued to threaten the United States and its allies. And just last week he claimed he had a ‘much bigger & more powerful’ nuclear button than the one Kim claims to have on his desk.
After Kim called him a ‘dotard’ in November, Trump, 71, sarcastically referred to the rogue leader who just celebrated his 34th birthday this week as ‘short and fat.’
‘Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend – and maybe someday that will happen!’ Trump tweeted.
Asked about the tweet at a news conference that day in Vietnam, Trump said of a friendship with Kim: ‘I think anything is a possibility. Strange things happen in life. That might be a strange thing to happen, but it’s certainly a possibility.
‘If that did happen, it would be a good thing for — I can tell you — for North Korea. But it would also be good for lots of other places, and it would be good for the world.
‘So, certainly, it is something that could happen. I don’t know that it will, but it would be very, very nice if it did,’ Trump said.
Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he’s a ‘flexible’ person who often develops friendships with people he used to be on bad terms with.
‘You’ll see that a lot with me, and then all of the sudden somebody’s my best friend,’ he said. ‘I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. I’m a very flexible person.’
Just before the U.S. president’s shocking claim Thursday that he ‘probably’ has a ‘very good relationship’ with Kim, North Korea claimed that author Michael Wolff’s bombshell book about the White House ‘foretells Trump’s political demise’
Kim has slammed the U.S. president as a ‘frightened dog’ and a ‘gangster fond of playing with fire’ and called him ‘mentally deranged.’
In a New Year’s day address, he warned: ‘The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is reality, not a threat.
‘This year, we should focus on mass-producing nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles for operational deployment,’ he said. ‘These weapons will be used only if our society is threatened.’
Just before the U.S. president’s shocking claim Thursday that he ‘probably’ has a ‘very good relationship’ with Kim, North Korea claimed that author Michael Wolff’s bombshell book about the White House ‘foretells Trump’s political demise.’
Trump has repeatedly derided Kim as ‘Little Rocket Man’ and threatened him with the ‘might’ of the U.S. military
Kim has slammed the U.S. president as a ‘frightened dog’ and a ‘gangster fond of playing with fire’ and called him ‘mentally deranged’
Salacious details inside the book, ‘Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump White House,’ about Trump’s behavior and his aides’ private views about his competency made for fresh fodder for critics of the president who’ve said he’s mentally unstable.
The president and other White House aides have blasted it as ‘inaccurate trash’, but it was the top-selling book in the U.S. last week.
In Pyongyang, one of Kim’s mouthpiece newspapers, Rodong Sinmun, said the book had led to Trump being ‘massively humiliated worldwide’ and its sales reflect ‘rapidly surging anti-Trump sentiments in the international community.’
Fire And Fury was released earlier this month and had sold 29,000 copies by the end of its second day on the market, NPD BookScan said.
Digital sales had already topped 250,000 and audio sales exceed 100,000, according to Macmillan, the parent company of the book’s publisher, Henry Holt and Co., as of last week.
It has raised an initial announced printing of 150,000 to more than a million.
The first excerpt of the book came out the morning after Trump’s tweet boasting about the size of his nuclear button.
Asked in a news conference that day about Trump’s ‘mental fitness’ as a result of the tweet, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, ‘I think the President and the people of this country should be concerned about the mental fitness of the leader of North Korea.
‘He’s made repeated threats. He’s tested missiles time and time again for years. And this is a President who’s not going to cower down and he’s not going to be weak, and is going to make sure that he does what he’s promised to do, and that’s stand up and protect the American people.’