President Donald Trump told fans in West Virginia that he and Kim Jong-un fell in love with each other during their summit and that the North Korean dictator won him over with a series of “beautiful letters.”
“We went back and forth, then we fell in love. No, really! He wrote me beautiful letters. And they are great letters. We fell in love,” said Trump.
The president pointed to the media gallery in anticipation of the headlines to come. “Now they’ll say, ‘Donald Trump says they fell in love. How horrible! How horrible is that?! So unpresidential,’” he said mockingly.
Trump then reiterated that he could be “presidential” if he wanted to, but that he liked his current way of doing things because it led to large audiences like the one assembled to hear him in the Mountain state.
After publicly warning last year to destroy North Korea in a rain of “fire and fury,” the relationship between Trump and Kim has warmed considerably.
The dictator has stated his willingness to give up his nuclear weapons, but has been characteristically vague on the specifics. Trump and Kim met for a summit in Singapore in June, which led to an easing of hostility between the countries but little in the way of concrete promises.
It hasn’t dampened the relationship, however, with Trump showering Kim in accolades before the United Nations last week, calling him “terrific” and telling reporters that he was planning a second summit with the dictator in the near future.
“I’ll be meeting with Chairman Kim in the very near future,” Trump told reporters. “It will be announced.”