Trump defends North Korea summit, trashes media: 'We got so much for peace in the world'
As other politicians prepared for Sunday morning talk shows, President Trump circumvented the traditional press circuit once again by tweeting a blue streak on the North Korea summit and, from his perspective, the media’s failure to properly acknowledge his successes.
He repeatedly defended the highly publicized meeting in Singapore last week with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un against criticisms that it was primarily a spectacle that yielded few tangible results. Trump said Kim agreed to stop testing nuclear weapons and rockets and to return hostages.
Funny how the Fake News, in a coordinated effort with each other, likes to say I gave sooo much to North Korea because I “met.” That’s because that’s all they have to disparage! We got so much for peace in the world, & more is being added in finals. Even got our hostages/remains!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 17, 2018
Trump specifically pushed back against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who said on the Senate floor that the summit was more show than substance. To make his point, Schumer used an old Texas phrase “all hat, no cattle” but got the order wrong — hence, “all cattle, no hat.” Trump, not one to let the mistakes of his opponents slide, quoted the error back to Schumer while defending the summit.
Chuck Schumer said “the Summit was what the Texans call all cattle and no hat.” Thank you Chuck, but are you sure you got that right? No more nuclear testing or rockets flying all over the place, blew up launch sites. Hostages already back, hero remains coming home & much more!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 17, 2018
Trump claimed there was “a coordinated effort” among news outlets to insist that Trump gave up “sooo much” in the negotiation process by meeting with Kim, and he said they focus on this point because they have nothing else to criticize. He also elaborated on his proposal for the United States and South Korea to stop running war games in the region, which he called needlessly provocative and expensive when trying to conduct negotiations in good faith. Pyongyang has long asked for an end to the war games, which are joint military exercises to prepare South Korean and American forces for the possibility of actual warfare.
Holding back the “war games” during the negotiations was my request because they are VERY EXPENSIVE and set a bad light during a good faith negotiation. Also, quite provocative. Can start up immediately if talks break down, which I hope will not happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 17, 2018
Trump suggested that the agreement to denuclearize the Korean peninsula is being celebrated throughout Asia and that only political partisans in the United States would rather see this deal fall through than see the president succeed — even if it saves millions of lives.
The denuclearization deal with North Korea is being praised and celebrated all over Asia. They are so happy! Over here, in our country, some people would rather see this historic deal fail than give Trump a win, even if it does save potentially millions & millions of lives!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 17, 2018
Throughout the morning tweets, Trump boasted about how well the economy has been doing under his watch, claimed that he has a wonderful relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel despite news coverage, and reiterated his accusation that Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is a witch hunt.
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