Republican senators on Wednesday night brushed off President Donald Trump’s tweet threatening North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with the size and power of his “nuclear button,” the latest in a series of heated exchanges between the two leaders.
“It’s Trump being Trump,” South Dakota Senator John Thune told THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
“Trump being Trump,” echoed North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis on his way to votes.
Kim on Monday warned that he has a nuclear button on his desk, along with nukes at his disposal that put the entire U.S. in range. The remark prompted Trump to tweet Tuesday that he, too, has a nuclear button, “but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” North Korea has been conducting missile and nuclear tests at an accelerated pace for months, an advancement that Trump’s deputies have said represents the most urgent threat to national security.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, who previously said that Trump’s threats could put the U.S. “on the path to World War III,” avoided discussing the president’s North Korea tweet. But he said he would comment on the recent tweets related to Iran and Pakistan.
“I might not have seen all of them,” Corker told reporters.
Pressed by TWS about the nuclear button tweet, he admitted, “I might have seen that one.”
Asked then how he responded when he read the tweet, Corker hesitated.
“I … didn’t respond,” he said.
Colorado Senator Cory Gardner said he would have phrased the tweet differently. But he added he is more concerned about threats posed by Pyongyang than Twitter.
“Kim Jong-un is the threat to worry about. I’m not worried about trying to figure out the relationship between President Trump and Twitter,” he told TWS in an interview. “I am worried about what Kim Jong Un is trying to do to the world.”
Trump’s tweet did attract condemnation from Democrats, however.
“It’s extremely frustrating because it makes it more difficult to have serious negotiations and diplomacy,” said Maryland senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the foreign relations panel
Kim, in the same New Year’s day speech, signaled openness to the possibility of sending North Korean athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Seoul later followed up on the suggestion for talks, paving the way for the first such meeting between the two countries in two years. The North and South also reopened a hotline across their demilitarized border zone Wednesday.
Trump tweeted earlier Tuesday, after Kim’s offer to the South, that “sanctions and “other” pressures” are starting to having an effect on the North. “Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time,” he continued. “Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not – we will see!”
The State Department has cast doubt on Kim’s suggestion and questioned whether the intention is to “drive a wedge” between the U.S. and Seoul. Administration officials have said that talks with Kim should not occur until he makes moves toward denuclearization.
“North Korea can talk to anyone they want, but the U.S. is not going to recognize it or acknowledge it until they agree to ban the nuclear weapons that they have,” said United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley.
And Republican senators seem content to leave the policy decisions up to Trump and the White House for now.
Corker, given another chance to comment on Trump’s threat as he left the Senate Wednesday night, hedged.
“You keep asking that question, and I keep being too busy to answer it,” he quipped.
