House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., argued Thursday that North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un is the “big winner” after President Trump canceled the planned summit between the two next month in Singapore.
[READ: Trump’s letter to Kim Jong Un canceling North Korea summit]
“I think it’s a good thing for Kim Jong Un,” Pelosi told reporters during her weekly press conference about how plans for the meeting elevated Kim’s status. “They were on par with each other. He got global recognition and regard. He’s the big winner.”
“When he got this letter from the president saying ‘OK, never mind’ — he must be having a giggle fit right there in North Korea,” Pelosi said, adding later on that the letter was “kind of like a valentine.”
Pelosi said her big takeaway from the failed talks is that the president and the White House were not prepared as they headed into these high-level negotiations. The letter, which she referred to as “palsy-walsy,” came less than three weeks ahead of the planned meeting between the two sides in Singapore.
“This takes preparation. This takes knowledge. This takes judgment, and clearly this takes preparation, which the president didn’t make,” Pelosi said. “It’s clear he didn’t know what he was getting into, and now he’s walking away from it in this very chummy, palsy-walsy letter to Kim Jong Un. He, Kim Jong Un, is the big winner. It’s unfortunate … because you want to be optimistic.”
