President Donald Trump offered stark contrast on Thursday between his eight months of no North Korea missile launches under his administration with near war under President Barack Obama.
“You can ask President Obama, he was very close to going to war and he would have lost 50 million people, plus. … The rhetoric was very strong,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as they flew out to a campaign rally in Montana. “When I took office, you can quote me on this, North Korea was doing tremendous testing, tremendous missile launches.”
“In the meantime for eight months you’ve had not one rocket launch, missile launch and you haven’t had one nuclear test,” Trump added.
Asked if North Korea is trying to hide its nuclear program, Trump said, “We’ll see. We’ll see. All I can tell you is this. You haven’t had one missile launch and you haven’t had one rocket launch.”
One reporter asked President Trump if he trusts North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Trump replied, “I had a very good feeling about him from the standpoint – I shook his hand. I thought we got along very well. I thought we had a good chemistry together. I think we understand each other.”
“I really believe that he sees a different future for North Korea,” Trump said of Kim. “I hope that’s true. If that’s not true we’ll go back to the other way.”
Trump offered a contrast between the relationship between the U.S. and North Korea under Obama and under his own leadership, “Under the Obama administration they were launching missiles, they were testing. They’re not doing that anymore. That could start tomorrow. Who knows. And if it does, I won’t be happy.”
“But for eight months there’s been not one rocket or missile launch or there hasn’t been a nuclear test,” Trump offered on progress with North Korea. “And other things have happened including last week, taking down the anti-US propaganda.”
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