Trump says he and Kim Jong Un had ‘good chemistry’
Former President Donald Trump informed Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward that he had “good chemistry” with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, The Hill reports, per a clip from Woodward’s new audiobook.
In the clip from The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s 20 Interviews with President Donald Trump, released Tuesday, the former president could be heard telling Woodward he’s “the only one [Kim] deals with.”
“The word chemistry. You meet somebody and you have chemistry,” Trump continued. “You meet a woman. In one second, you know whether or not it’s all going to happen.” The former president had, throughout his tenure, met with the North Korean leader personally to push “for peace talks between the U.S., North Korea, and South Korea,” The Hill notes.
A clip of the dialog aired on CNN on Monday, and is also included in a opinions essay Woodward penned for the Post.
Talking with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Woodward criticized Trump’s cavalier strategy towards the “thuggish” Kim, contrasting it with that of former Defense Secretary James Mattis. “I am increasingly baffled the more I hear the casual disconnect, the sense [Trump] has of obligation to himself, I guess, about Kim Jong Un. … I’ve never heard another president say anything like that,” Woodward informed Tapper.
