President Trump does not plan to meet with former NBA star Dennis Rodman during his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the White House said Thursday, dismissing speculation that the one-time “Celebrity Apprentice” contestant might attend the historic meeting in Singapore next week.
“I don’t know what part the best rebounder in basketball has to play in that. He’s great on the court, but I think the negotiations should best be left to those who are good at it, and President Trump is the best,” deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.”
“We expect [Trump] and Kim Jong Un to have an amazing conversation without Dennis Rodman in tow,” he added.
An agent for Rodman, who has traveled to North Korea in the past after developing an unusual friendship with its authoritarian leader, told CNN earlier this week his client was “considering going to Singapore” for the June 12 summit between Trump and Kim. The White House has since clarified that Rodman would not be traveling as a member of either country’s delegation, but rather as a private citizen who would be excluded entirely from the summit.
“He’s not a representative of the U.S. government,” a State Department aide told CNN on Wednesday.
The unprecedented nuclear summit between the U.S. and North Korea is scheduled for 9 a.m. local next Tuesday at the Capella Hotel on Singapore’s Sentosa Island. Trump has repeatedly said he will walk away from talks with Kim if the regime declines to commit to complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization.
“We have a schedule set of what we would like to see accomplished and what we want is denuclearization of the peninsula,” Gidley said. “That’s what the president has been talking about — verifiable, irreversible denuclearization.”
[Related: CIA assessment suggests North Korea not planning on ridding itself of nuclear weapons: Report]
