Claiming He Doesn’t ‘Take Sides,’ Trump Again Sides With Kim Jong Un Over Biden

US President Donald Trump attends a state banquet at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on May 27, 2019. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
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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.”

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.

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