Trump: We’re Not Going to Be ‘Played Like a Fiddle’ By North Korea Like Past Administrations
President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday his White House administration was in “total touch” with South Korean counterparts and North Korean officials ahead of a summit he plans to attend with the regime’s leader, Kim Jong Un, saying “we’ll be setting up a meeting very shortly.”
“We’ll see what happens, but hopefully we’ll have great success,” he said. The president, whose previously said his goal in the ongoing discussions is for North Korea to agree to give up its nuclear capabilities, then attacked past administrations for being played “like a fiddle” by North Korea.
“The United States has been played beautifully, like a fiddle, because you had a different kind of a leader,” Trump said. “We’re not going to be played, okay? We’re going to hopefully make a deal. If we don’t, that’s fine. The United States in the past was played like a fiddle.”
The Trump administration has already visited North Korea ahead of the president’s summit, with then-CIA Director (and now Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo meeting with Kim Jong Un over Easter Weekend.
Meanwhile, the president on Friday maintained a stance regarding the upcoming talks that he’s repeatedly told the media: If it doesn’t go his way, he’s walking out.
“We will, I think, come up with a solution,” Trump said. “And if we don’t, we leave the room. With great respect we leave the room and keep it going.”
Watch a clip of the statement above.
[image via screengrab]
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