There’s a lot in this exchange with George Stephanopoulos (emphasis added)…
GS: What other kinds of security guarantees did you offer, did you put on the table?
Trump: Well, we’ve given him, I don’t wanna talk about it specifically, but we’ve given him, he’s going to be happy. His country does love him. His people, you see the fervor. They have a great fervor. They’re gonna put it together, and I think they’re going to end up with a very strong country, and a country which has people — that they’re so hard working, so industrious. I think if you look at South Korea, someday, maybe in the not too distant future, it will be something that.
What jumps out first is Trump’s claim that Kim is loved by his people and that they have great “fervor” for him. That’s quite a statement since the only thing we see out of North Korea are the cult of personality type public rallies where people scream and weep and cheer for the leader in a kind of whipped up or feigned delirium. This seems in line with Trump’s general support and praise for dictators and autocrats.
But there’s a second part of this exchange. He seems to imply that he offered Kim some sort of secret or unofficial security guarantees. Indeed, he says this explicitly. What were they?
