After signing a joint-agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, committing to denuclearize the Korean peninsula and end “war games,” President Donald Trump told reporters that he couldn’t “ensure anything,” but that he trusts Kim, the same world leader he dubbed “little rocket man” and traded often-juvenile insults with just months ago.
“Can you ensure anything?” Trump told reporters after they repeatedly questioned why he thinks he can trust Kim. “Can I ensure that you’re going to be able to sit down properly when you sit down? You can’t ensure anything. All I can say is they want to make a deal. That’s what I do. My whole life has been deals. I’ve done great at it. That’s what I do. And I know when somebody wants to deal, and I know when somebody doesn’t.”
During a lengthy press conference in Singapore on Tuesday, where Trump took reporters’ questions for more than an hour, he also said if talks do fall through, he will “never admit that, but I’ll find some kind of an excuse.”
Trump says he trusts Kim Jong Un. And if he's wrong? "I may be wrong, I mean I may stand before you in six months and say, 'Hey I was wrong,'" said Trump, before adding, "I don't know that I'll ever admit that, but I'll find some kind of an excuse." https://t.co/J2k6ehVhW1 pic.twitter.com/onKaUHP2f3
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 12, 2018
In the same presser, he boasted that he was largely to thank for the agreement with Kim, claiming the regime has never had the same amount of “confidence” in an American President as it does with him.
“I don’t think they’ve ever had the confidence, frankly, in a President that they have right now for getting things done and having the ability to get things done,” Trump said. “I think he might want to do this as much or even more than me because they see a very bright future for North Korea.”
Trump told reporters that human rights had been discussed during his meeting with Kim, but he also called Kim “very talented” and commended him for his leadership at such a young age.
“Anybody that takes over a situation like he did at 26 years of age and is able to run it and run it tough — I don’t say he was nice, or I don’t say anything about it,” he said.