White House Defends Trump's Salute Of North Korean General
North Korea’s propaganda machine struck gold when U.S. President Donald Trump met with the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, this week.
On Thursday, just two days after the summit between Trump and Kim, the country’s state-run media aired a 42-minute documentary on the occasion.
The lengthy video includes plenty of previously unseen footage from the meeting, including a clip of Trump returning the salute of a North Korean general.
In the footage, Trump reaches for a handshake first, only to be met with a salute, which he returns. We don’t know the full context of the interaction.
An unnamed U.S. official told CNN that Trump was briefed on U.S. protocol, which includes not saluting military officers from other countries ― let alone officers from a hostile regime responsible for major human rights violations.
“[Trump’s] the commander in chief. He doesn’t even salute his own generals. They salute him. That’s the way it works,” Retired Rear Adm. John Kirby said. “You certainly don’t do it with leaders of foreign military, and you most certainly don’t do it with the leaders of foreign militaries of an adversary nation.”
The White House defended Trump’s unorthodox act as a simple courtesy.
“It’s a common courtesy when a military official from another government salutes, you return that,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Thursday.
Unsurprisingly, there was plenty of backlash on Twitter:
We can be outraged that Trump saluted a North Korean general without invoking the "if Obama did it" argument. Here's the truth: Neither Obama nor any other American President would've done this. Like so much else today, it's uniquely Trumpian and abhorrent.
— Ned Price (@nedprice) June 14, 2018
There was outrage in some circles when President Obama saluted an American military officer while holding a coffee cup.
It stands to reason that those same critics should likely be outraged over President Trump appearing to salute a North Korean military general.— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 14, 2018
The respect/disrespect of Obama's salute is irrelevant.
Salutes are given to officers of friendly militaries. The US and North Korea are technically still at war, which is a subject of the talks. One does not salute the enemy.— mieke eoyang (@MiekeEoyang) June 14, 2018
Others defended the act, noting that Trump was in an awkward situation:
Sigh. If you watch the video Trump reached his hand out to shake the generals but the general snapped to attention and saulted so he returned the salute. Not ideal but not what it seems.... https://t.co/qAZ2oLXGkO
— Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) June 14, 2018
Related Coverage
Trump Says North Korea Summit Agreement Is Far More 'Comprehensive' Than It Actually Is
What's In The North Korea Summit Agreement
World Leaders React To North Korea Summit
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
