Trump fell for Kim Jong-un’s flattery, Woodward claims in new book

Donald Trump was flattered when Kim Jong-un addressed him as “Your Excellency”, claimed the North Korean dictator only smiles when he is with him and said Kim thought former President Barack Obama was “an asshole”, according to excerpts of a new book on the US leader.

The book, 'Rage', was written by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post journalist who broke the Watergate scandal in 1972, and is based on 18 interviews with Mr Trump between December and July.

Much of the book is devoted to domestic US issues, including the president’s admission that he had been briefed that coronavirus was more deadly than the flu before the first case was reported in the US but that he wanted to play down the crisis. Mr Trump was, however, also keen to promote his foreign policy achievements.

The president refused to share the 27 leaders that he has exchanged with Mr Kim to date, insisting, “Those are so top secret”, although Mr Woodward was able to independently obtain messages that Mr Trump previously described as “love letters”.

The North Korean leader repeatedly flatters Mr Trump by calling him “Your Excellency”, and says in one missive dated December 25, 2018, that meeting him again “would be reminiscent of a scene from a fantasy film”. In another letter of June 10, 2019, he adds, “the deep and special relationship between us will work as a magical force” and wishes the US leader a happy birthday.

Mr Trump was proud when he told Mr Woodward how the North Korean leader had addressed him as “Excellency”, adding that he thought to himself “Holy shit” the very first time that he met Mr Kim, in Singapore in 2018. Apparently in awe of Mr Kim, he said he found him to be “far beyond smart” and boasted that the young dictator “tells me everything” - including a graphic explanation of how he had his own uncle, Jang Song-thaek, executed in 2013 for disloyalty.

Mr Trump subsequently sent a copy of the New York Times with a picture of the two men on the front page to Pyongyang, with a message that read, “Chairman, great picture of you, big time”.

The president also told Woodward, “He never smiled before. I’m the only one he smiles with” and revealed Mr Kim’s opinion of his predecessor in the White House.

Despite warnings from foreign policy experts that Pyongyang is unlikely to ever give up its nuclear weapons, Mr Trump said that he is determined to continue with the same approach, adding that the CIA has “no idea” how to handle North Korea.

He also dismissed suggestions that he had given away too much in early meetings with Mr Kim, such as my postponing and then down-scaling joint US-South Korean military exercises as well as granting the North Korean leadership stature and legitimacy on the international stage, which the regime has long craved.

Mr Trump indicated that he sees the problem of the North’s nuclear weapons and long-range missiles as a property transaction that needs to be negotiated, saying, “It’s really like, you know, somebody that is in love with a house and they just can’t sell it”.

Insisting that the US had come close to war with North Korean in 2017 and that his statesmanship had averted a conflict, Mr Trump also revealed, “I have built a nuclear - a weapons system that nobody’s ever had in this country before. We have stuff that you haven’t even seen or heard about. There’s nobody - what we have is incredible”.

Mr Woodward was later informed that the US military does indeed have a secret advanced weapons system, but officials were surprised that the president had let news of the weapon slip.

The release of 'Rage' coincides with a book by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who writes in 'Speaking for Myself' that Mr Kim was taken aback when Mr Trump offered him a breath mint before a meeting in Singapore in 2018 - and feared that it was an attempt to poison him.

To reassure Mr Kim, the president “dramatically blew in the air to reassure Kim it was just a breath mint and took a few from the box and popped them into his mouth. Kim reluctantly accepted the TicTac from [Trump] and ate it”, she wrote.

Mrs Sanders also claims that Mr Kim winked at her during the Singapore summit, saying that she looked up “to notice Kim staring at me. We made direct eye contact and Kim nodded and appeared to wink at me. I was stunned”.

The president was reportedly delighted at the episode and declared during the subsequent limousine ride that Mr Kim “Hit on you! He did” - and joking that she would have to go to North Korea and “take one for the team”.