When a reporter asked him why he had not more forcefully challenged Kim on human rights, Trump replied that he was trying to cultivate a friendship with him to avoid military conflict<\/b>
\nUS President Donald Trump\u2019s praise Friday for Kim Jong-un\u2019s authoritarian rule in North Korea \u2013 and his apparent envy that people there \u201csit up at attention\u201d when the 35-year-old dictator speaks \u2013 marked an escalation of the American president\u2019s open embrace of totalitarian leaders around the world.
Reflecting on his impressions of Kim following their Singapore summit, Trump told Fox News Channel: \u201cHe\u2019s the head of a country, and I mean he\u2019s the strong head. Don\u2019t let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.\u201d
It was unclear whether Trump was referring to Americans generally or only to his staff. His interview took place along the West Wing driveway, and as the president talked about \u201cmy people\u201d he gestured toward the White House.
Later, when pressed by a CNN reporter about the comment, Trump claimed it had been a joke: \u201cI\u2019m kidding. You don\u2019t understand sarcasm.\u201d
Whether jesting or not, no US president has been as free in his admiration of dictators and absolute power as the 45th, historians say. And Trump\u2019s interest in the subject seems to be growing as he becomes better acquainted with some of the world\u2019s authoritarian leaders, including Kim, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Trump said he may try to meet one-on-one this summer.
\u201cTrump has dictator envy,\u201d said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. \u201cYou start being more attracted to people like Kim and Putin because they look like they could be presidents for life. And if they have enemies, they don\u2019t have to resort to [former president Richard] Nixon keeping an enemies list. You just destroy your enemies\u2019 lives with a phone call. That\u2019s attractive to Trump.\u201d
Trump earlier this week declared the media to be \u201cour country\u2019s biggest enemy,\u201d and he has repeatedly voiced his desire to punish journalists who air criticisms of him. Trump remarked during his Singapore trip about how positive a female news anchor was toward Kim on state-run North Korean television, and joked that even Trump-friendly Fox News was not as lavish in its praise.
Trump condoned violence against protesters during his campaign rallies, and as president has encouraged jailing his political opponents and perceived enemies, including former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former FBI director James Comey. Trump also has embraced his presidential clemency powers as a mechanism to help some loyalists, personally undoing judgments of the judicial system that he considers unfair.
\u201cTrump has been remarkably consistent as long as he\u2019s been on the public stage in exhibiting authoritarian instincts,\u201d said Steven Levitsky, a Harvard University professor who recently co-authored a book on the subject, How Democracies Die . \u201cAny time any society elects a leader with authoritarian impulses it\u2019s a risk for democracy, but the second half of the story is society\u2019s and our institutions\u2019 abilities to constrain him.\u201d
Eliot Cohen, a Trump critic and former senior State Department official under George W. Bush, said Trump \u201chas classic traits of the authoritarian leader. The one that\u2019s always struck me most is this visceral instinct of people\u2019s weaknesses and a corresponding desire to be seen as strong and respected and admired.\u201d
During his visit to Singapore, Trump showered praise on Kim, calling him a \u201cvery talented man\u201d, a \u201csmart guy\u201d and a \u201cvery good negotiator\u201d, He also complimented Kim\u2019s \u201cgreat personality.\u201d
Trump was more muted when it came to Kim\u2019s record of human rights atrocities. The North Korean leader starves many of his citizens, sentences opponents to labour camps and executes people he perceives as threats to his power, including assassinating family members.
Asked at a news conference in Singapore how he could be comfortable calling a dictator with a murderous record \u201cvery talented,\u201d Trump replied: \u201cWell, he is very talented. Anybody that takes over a situation like he did at 26 years of age and is able to run it and run it tough \u2013 I don\u2019t say it was nice or I don\u2019t say anything about it. He ran it. Very few people at that age, you can take 1 out of 10,000, probably couldn\u2019t do it.\u201d
Trump\u2019s posture is inconsistent with Republican orthodoxy. Senator Marco Rubio tweeted that while Trump was \u201ctrying to butter him up to get a good deal,\u201d Kim \u201cis NOT a talented guy. He inherited the family business from his dad & grandfather. He is a total weirdo who would not be elected assistant dogcatcher in any democracy.\u201d
Back home in Washington on Friday, when a reporter asked him why he had not more forcefully challenged Kim on human rights, Trump replied that he was trying to cultivate a friendship with him to avoid military conflict.
\u201cI don\u2019t want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family,\u201d Trump told the reporter.
Senator Lindsey Graham defended Trump\u2019s approach, saying Friday on CNN: \u201cIf he believes buttering the guy up will get rid of his nuclear weapons, butter him up.\u201d
Graham drew a comparison to former president Franklin D. Roosevelt and former British prime minister Winston Churchill\u2019s handling of Russia\u2019s human rights abuses during the second world war.
\u201cRemember World War Two? Remember Joseph Stalin?\u201d Graham said. \u201cHe was our key ally in defeating Hitler. The Soviets bled the Germans dry. I don\u2019t think Churchill and Roosevelt went to Uncle Joe every day and said: \u2018Hey, why don\u2019t you, you know, why don\u2019t you stop?\u2019\u201d
The White House on Friday released a video message from Trump touting what he views as a successful summit with Kim. In the film, which includes a montage of scenes featuring the two leaders, Trump said his trip was \u201cworth every second,\u201d adding: \u201cIf there\u2019s a chance at peace, if there\u2019s a chance to end the horrible threat of nuclear conflict, then we must pursue it at all costs.\u201d
Trump kept up his praise of Kim in an interview Friday with Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy. He noted that he gave Kim \u201ca very direct number\u201d and instructed him to \u201ccall me if he has any difficulties\u201d.
\u201cWe have a really great relationship for the first time ever,\u201d Trump said. \u201cNo president\u2019s ever had this. So I get hit by these fakes back here\u201d \u2013 he pointed dismissively to a group of journalists who were gathered behind him on the West Wing driveway \u2013 \u201cnot all of them, some are phenomenal, but I get hit because I went there, I gave him credibility. I think it\u2019s great to give him credibility.\u201d
Amy Zegart, director of the Centre for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, said Trump\u2019s embrace of authoritarians \u201cis a jagged and dangerous departure\u201d in American foreign policy.
\u201cWhat makes Trump\u2019s comments so disturbing is that they reveal a president who believes in projecting American power but not American values \u2013 he believes in might but not right,\u201d said Zegart, who co-authored with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a book about global insecurity, Political Risk .
The video captured a brief interaction that was not seen by US journalists. A North Korean general saluted Trump, and the president saluted him in return. It is highly unusual for a US president to return the salute of a foreign military officer. Some analysts said Kim\u2019s government was likely to use the image in its propaganda campaigns as a victory for Pyongyang because it suggests the American commander in chief defers to the North Korean military.
Trump defended his salute in his Friday interview with Fox.
\u201cI met a general,\u201d he said. \u201cHe saluted me and I saluted him back. I guess they\u2019re using that as another sound bite. You know, I think I\u2019m being respectful to the general.\u201d<\/p>\n