White House staffers were reportedly concerned in 2017 that the former president was using similarly combative rhetoric behind closed doors as he did in public.
In talks with aides, Donald Trump reportedly urged attacking North Korea with nuclear weapons and said that the United States could blame the strike on another nation, according to a book about his presidency.
Mr. Trump reportedly made the comments during his first year in office, when he was particularly combative in his public comments about North Korea, warning Mr. Kim in August of that year not to threaten the United States because they would be “met with fire and fury as the world has never seen before.”
During his maiden address to the United Nations the following month, Trump doubled down, telling the North Korean dictator that he would “destroy” his nation and mockingly referred to him as “little rocket man.”
The book alleges that Donald Trump considered firing a nuclear weapon
White House officials, led by John Kelly, Mr. Trump’s newly hired chief of staff, were reportedly significantly more anxious that the president’s private conversations were similarly menacing.
Michael Schmidt writes in an afterword to be added to his 2020 book Donald Trump V. the United States that Mr. Trump threatened North Korea on social media in the days following Kelly’s appointment.
The Washington correspondent for The New York Times adds the following to the forthcoming new portion of the book. “Even more frightening than Trump’s tweets was the reality that, behind closed doors in the Oval Office. He continued to express his desire to wage war. He casually mentioned the possibility of launching a nuclear weapon against North Korea. Stating that the government could free itself of responsibility by blaming someone else.”
Mr. Schmidt also told that “behind closed doors in front of his aides. Trump would speak cavalierly about using force against North Korea. And there were grave concerns about this because Trump was saying things publicly that signaled the possibility of a military conflict.
Kelly, a four-star general whom many considered as a moderating effect on the president during his 19-month tenure. Reportedly stated that “it would be difficult not to have the finger pointed at us”. When Mr. Trump recommended using deception to conceal the origin of the attack.
In 2018, Mr. Trump escalated tensions with North Korea by tweeting to Kim Jong Un. “I have a Nuclear Button, but it is far larger and more powerful than his, and it works!”
The following year, however, he became the first president of the United States to visit his North Korean counterpart for a summit in the demilitarized zone of Korea.
