President Trump said Tuesday that his rhetorical threats to use military action against North Korea helped set up his summit with Kim Jong Un, even if he sometimes felt “foolish” making those threats.
“I think without the rhetoric we wouldn’t have been here,” Trump said in part of an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity released Tuesday.
“I really believe that,” he said. “You know, we did sanctions and all the things you would do but I think without the rhetoric, you know, other administrations, I don’t want to get specific on that, but you know they had a policy of silence.”
[Rudy Giuliani: Kim Jong Un ‘begged’ Trump to hold Singapore summit]
Trump said past administration’s would simply not answer North Korea, but he said that’s not the solution.
“That’s not what you have to do. So I think the rhetoric, I hated to do it, sometimes I felt foolish doing it, but we had no choice,” he said.
Trump said he and Kim immediately had a good relationship, and that Kim seemed ready to dismantle his country’s nuclear program.
“I felt very good at the beginning,” said Trump. “You know I talked about we have to denuke – his country has to be denuked and he understood that, he fully understood that, he didn’t fight it.”
The full interview is set to air Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.
