While claiming that he doesn’t “take sides,” President Donald Trump on Monday essentially did take the side of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un on several issues.
“I don’t take sides as to who I’m in favor of and who I’m not, but I can tell you that Joe Biden was a disaster, his administration with President Obama, they were a basically disaster,” Trump said in a press conference alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.
That came in response to a question about “criticism that you’re supporting a dictator instead of an American vice president.” The President this week responded favorably to the North Korean state news agency’s assertion that Biden is a “fool of low I.Q.,” an insult that itself followed Biden’s line at a rally that Trump “embraces dictators and tyrants like Putin and Kim Jong Un.”
North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me. I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me, & also smiled when he called Swampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual, & worse. Perhaps that’s sending me a signal?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2019
In the press conference Monday, Trump repeated the sentiment. “Well, Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low-IQ individual. He probably is, based on his record,” he said. “I think I agree with him on that.”
In the same response, Trump broke with his National Security Adviser John Bolton, who’d condemned recent North Korean short-range missile tests.
“My people think it could have been a violation, as you know. I view it differently,” Trump said, saying the tests were indicative of “a man who perhaps wants to get attention. And perhaps not. Who knows? It doesn’t matter.”
The President distinguished the short-range tests from nuclear testing and long-range ballistic missile testing.
“And I think that someday we will have a deal. I’m not in a rush,” he said.
