John Bolton, who served as national security adviser to Donald Trump, on Sunday suggested the “love letters” the former president often claims to have received from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un weren’t actually the real deal.
Bolton, speaking to CNN’s Jim Acosta, said, “There is no doubt in my mind, these letters were written by some Communist Party hack in the agitprop bureau of the North Korean Workers Party.”
But Trump fell for the letters and believed they were actually from Kim, said Bolton, because “they were filled with phrases like ‘your excellency’ and things like that.”
“Trump just thought they were love letters. I mean, I just shook my head. There wasn’t much more I could do,” Bolton continued. “I just don’t think he understands what he’s up against when he faces a hard man of contemporary international affairs. Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping. He just doesn’t know what room he’s in.”
Watch the interview here:
Bolton said Trump’s praise of Kim was “one more piece of evidence” that shows he is unfit to enter the White House for a second time.
“This is no joking matter. Kim Jong Un is a cruel dictator. His people are among the most impoverished in the world,” Bolton noted. “He’s building nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles intended to be able to hit the United States and intimidate his regional neighbors.”
“This is not somebody you pal around with. It just shows Trump has no real understanding of the depth of the threat that Kim Jong Un poses, and it is why four more years of Trump in control of foreign policy would be extraordinarily dangerous for the United States,” he added.
Bolton served in Trump’s White House from April 2018 to September 2019 but has since become a fierce critic of his former boss.
Last month, Bolton suggested Trump’s claim that foreign leaders love him wasn’t true. “I have been in those rooms with him when he’s met with those leaders. I believe they think he’s a laughing fool,” he said.