Day 1,069: Trump thinks an increasingly belligerent North Korea is a laughing matter

Donald Trump met with Kim Jong-un on three different occasions in a pretty transparent attempt to try and win a Nobel Peace Prize and bolster his foreign policy bona fides.

Trump received nothing from Kim, despite North Korea being desperate for a meeting with a U.S. president for decades. Instead, he is the one that handed Pyongyang gift after gift, including numerous pieces of propaganda. He proclaimed that North Korea was denuclearizing, cancelled military exercises with South Korea and, in general, was played like a fiddle by Kim.

Three years later, North Korea is more dangerous with more robust weapons capabilities than when Trump took office. And he’s content to just laugh it off.

President Trump did not seem concerned Tuesday when asked about the threat of a “Christmas present” from North Korea if the U.S. doesn’t roll back economic sanctions on the country by the end of the year.

“Maybe it’s a nice present,” Trump told reporters at an event at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “Maybe it’s a present where he sends me a beautiful vase, as opposed to a missile test.”

Pyongyang imposed an end-of-year deadline for concessions from the U.S. earlier this month, but the Trump administration has given no sign that it plans to give in to the pressure campaign. The U.S. wants North Korea to give up its entire nuclear arsenal before removing the sanctions.

Shortly after his comments, Trump played his fourth round of golf in as many days.

1,069 days in, 393 to go

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