Former President Donald Trump was even more combative about North Korea in private meetings than he was in public, according to a new book – including talking about using nuclear weapons on the country and blaming someone else.
The U.S. and North Korea were in a tense and dangerous face-off in 2017, when Trump spoke of unleashing ‘fire and fury’ and threatened at the UN to ‘totally destroy’ the country if forced to defend itself or its allies.
The remarks came amid a series of escalatory tweets about North Korea.
According to a new book, ‘Donald Trump v. the United States’, Trump made the nuclear threat in a meeting with top advisors, NBC reported.
That came just days after Trump’s bombastic UN speech. The then-president’s comments unnerved his new chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, who unloaded on Trump in his own memoir.
‘What scared Kelly even more than the tweets was the fact that behind closed doors in the Oval Office, Trump continued to talk as if he wanted to go to war,’ according to a forward to the new edition of the book, by New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt.
‘He cavalierly discussed the idea of using a nuclear weapon against North Korea, saying that if he took such an action, the administration could blame someone else for it to absolve itself of responsibility,’ the passage continued.
According to the account, Kelly, a retired Marine general, sought to push back and explain that the plan wouldn’t work.
‘It’d be tough to not have the finger pointed at us,’ he told the president.
Kelly then brought the military’s top leaders to the White House to brief Trump about how war between the U.S. and North Korea could easily break out, as well as the enormous consequences of such a conflict.
But the argument about how many people could be killed had ‘no impact on Trump,’ Schmidt writes.
Kelly then tried to point out that there would be economic repercussions, but the argument held Trump’s attention for only so long, according to the afterword.
The reported clash came after North Korea’s repeated missile launches, and Trump’s repeated threats, had policy experts worried about a potential military clash.
North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,’ Trump said that August from his New Jersey golf club.
‘They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen … he has been very threatening beyond a normal state. They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.
‘Trump would ultimately visit North Korea dictator Kim Jong-un on his own visit to the DMZ, and would repeatedly boast about ‘love letters’ the men exchanged.
They were among documents reportedly uncovered at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House.
Trump tweeted in early January 2018: ‘North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’
‘Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!’
Schmidt also writes that it was well-known among senior U.S. officials for several decades that North Korea sought to spy on U.S. decision-makers.
So White House aides were alarmed ‘that Trump would repeatedly talk on unclassified phones, with friends and confidants outside the government, about how he wanted to use military force against North Korea.’
