President Trump and his national security team discussed the message at the heart of his forceful comments about North Korea on Tuesday, but Trump ultimately decided to use the words “fire and fury” in the remarks he delivered in Bedminster, N.J., press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday.
“[Chief of staff] General [John] Kelly and others on the [National Security Counteam were well aware of the tone of the statement of the president prior to delivery,” Sanders told reporters traveling with the president on Wednesday. “The words were his own. The tone and strength of the message were discussed beforehand. They [Gen. Kelly and others] were clear the president was going to respond to North Korea’s threats following the sanctions with a strong message in no uncertain terms.”
Trump vowed to meet additional North Korean threats with “fire and fury like the world has never seen” in a brief statement Tuesday after the Washington Post reported on the intelligence community’s assessment that Pyongyang has miniaturized a nuclear warhead that could fit on a missile capable of striking the U.S.
Some experts questioned whether Trump’s choice of words would further inflame tensions with North Korea, whose state media revealed shortly after Trump’s statement that Pyongyang is weighing a strike against the American territory of Guam.
Sanders was responding to reports on Wednesday that suggested senior officials, including Kelly, did not know what Trump planned to say about North Korea before he issued his fiery statement. Although she confirmed that Trump alone selected the most controversial words in the statement, she disputed the idea that Trump’s national security team did not have a hand in shaping the response.
