Trump Boasted to Bob Woodward About His Rapport with Kim Jong Un During Summit: ‘He’s Having a Good Time… Look at Him Smile, He’s Happy’
President Donald Trump boasted about his rapport with North Korean leader Kim Jong un during his summit meetings with the dictator, showing Bob Woodward numerous photos of the pair of leaders smiling.
“I never met somebody at that level who has that wealth or alleged wealth he has who is so needy for some sort of recognition and, you know, flattery and so susceptible to it,” CNN host Anderson Cooper noted. “I want to play part of your conversations. He’s showing you photos of the two of them at one of the summits, the idea he’s showing you photos is bizarre to me and we want to warn viewers, the president uses profanity but these are his words important context for the conversation.”
Cooper then played audio of Trump seemingly attempting to impress Woodward with a series of pictures of Kim and Trump.
“Look at that picture. He’s having a good time. You know. Nobody has ever seen him smile. Look at him smile. He’s happy. He feels happy,” Trump said, of the murderous tyrant, before lavishing him with more praise. “But he’s very smart. Remember this, when you take over and I really mean this, too. You take over a country and you’re 25 years old and you survive. You’ve got millions of people that are all smart as hell and energetic.”
Woodward then recounted a conversation he had with President George W. Bush, where the latter expressed his loathing for Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, who starved millions of his people and violently silenced any dissenters by death.
“You know what? That attitude got him nothing,” Trump said, dismissively. “In the meantime, they built a huge nuclear force during the last two administrations. They haven’t done it during me. You hear reports that they will start again but for three years, I get nothing.”
Woodward then noted that Trump appeared to joke about Kim having had one of his uncles killed and the put the head on the body.
“What is it about him and dictators?” Cooper asked.
“Well, we have that tape where he says, extraordinary tape. just out of blue. He said ‘Well, I get along with the Turkish leader [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, who is probably got the worst human rights record possible, a tyrant and Trump says, gee, I get along with this guy. Explain that to me sometime,” Woodward pointed out. “He said as I say, explain it to me and I kind of thought well, that wouldn’t really be hard because he loves that sense of power.”
Watch the video above, via CNN.
