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)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

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.

Notable Replies

  1. 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.

    Fuck.

  2. Did anyone not think Fat Donnie would disgrace the US, again?

  3. “And I think that someday we will have a deal. I’m not in a rush,” he said.

    Of course you’re not. Just like your infrastructure plan, you’re in no rush because you have zero idea what to do.

  4. Aaaaaand the Donald Trump movie, with him starring as Leslie Neilsen in *The President Goes to Japan * continues.

  5. This is Trump unleashed. There is no going back for him now, he is 100% in the crazy zone. He is past help, past hope. He is f’d and he knows it.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

111 more replies

Participants

Avatar for playitagainrowlf Avatar for jeffgee1 Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for enon Avatar for patterman Avatar for rollinnolan Avatar for inversion Avatar for danny Avatar for lastroth Avatar for darrtown Avatar for pshah Avatar for tena Avatar for daulphin Avatar for bodie1 Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for michaelryerson Avatar for brian512 Avatar for katscherger Avatar for thinski Avatar for counterlife Avatar for outis Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for emiliano4 Avatar for ANNFFL

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: