Trump – who says Iran can’t have nuclear weapons – is fine with North Korea having them | indy100

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US president Donald Trump’s argument for the ongoing war in Iran has been to ensure the country does not have a nuclear weapon, but when one journalist pointed out that North Korea has them, the 80-year-old convicted felon didn’t seem to be all that worried.

This is despite the country launching several ballistic missiles from the east coast earlier this month, following a five-day training exercise carried out by the US, South Korea and Japan which Pyongyang slammed as “provocative”.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Trump said: “Ah, that’s interesting, you know why? Because you had a different president, and we could have stopped him.

“He happens to be a friend of mine – Kim Jong Un – he’s a friend of mine, he likes Trump, doesn’t like a lot of other people. I’m about the only person in the entire world that he likes, and I like him.

“He does have a nuclear capacity, a large nuclear – pretty large nuclear, not like us – but he has a nuclear capacity, Kim Jong Un.

“And, you know why? Because they had presidents that didn’t do what I did.

“As long as I’m around, he’s going to be fine… Because he respects me, he likes me.”

The comments have since been criticised by X/Twitter users, with progressive political commentator Alex Cole writing: “So the problem isn’t dictators having nuclear weapons. The problem is dictators having nuclear weapons without complimenting Trump first. How are Republicans not embarrassed at this s***?”:

News curator @SkylineReport said: “Trump got into a war with Iran because they weren’t his friends? WTF”:

Writer Kelly Scaletta responded: “Who said Trump needs to make everything about himself?”:

CNN anchor and chief national security analyst Jim Sciuttio noted: “Over the course of Trump’s three summits with him, Kim expanded North Korea’s nuclear arsenal”:

One account wrote: “The North Korean dictator is a friend -- but Canada and Denmark are enemies. Got it”:

And another said: “A classic malignant narcissist categorizes everyone as a friend or a foe and the only people who matter to him are those who validate him. North Korea, good. Canada, bad”:

Trump made the comments while standing next to AI executives, as Tuesday also saw him rebrand artificial intelligence as “super intelligence” via an executive order.

“The name Super Intelligence conveys the true capabilities of the technologies being developed today, unlocking new forms of human creativity and empowering Americans to achieve what was previously impossible - not simply imitating or automating human intelligence as is implied by the term “Artificial Intelligence,” a White House fact sheet reads.

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