John Bolton, former national security adviser for ex-President Donald Trump, issued a dire warning on the former president's potential return to the White House, comparing him to North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un.
"Donald Trump wants Americans to treat him like North Koreans treat Kim Jong Un. Get ready ... ," Bolton said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, where he shared a viral 2018 clip of the former president praising Kim.
Bolton's warning on X included a 20-second video clip from 2018 where Trump is speaking with Fox News' Steve Doocy. In the video, Trump praises the North Korean leader.
Doocy asked Trump if he believed the U.S. would host Kim in the future, to which Trump responded: "I think it's something that could happen. He's the head of a country and I mean he's the strong head. Don't let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same."
Newsweek reached out via email on Tuesday to representatives of Trump and Bolton for comment.
Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has faced waves of backlash over the years for his warm relationship with the leader of a country that's been a longtime adversary of the U.S.
In 2019, Trump became the first American president to meet with a North Korean leader when he visited with Kim. The talks also marked the first time a sitting U.S. president set foot in North Korea, one of the most closed nations in the world.
Trump's praise and friendliness toward the North Korean strongman has continued to ignite criticism. In 2022, so-called "love letters" from Kim were among documents retrieved from the former president's Mar-a-Lago residence by the National Archives. However, the former president has defended his approach to North Korea as helping to maintain peace and move toward denuclearization.
The North Korean leader has long been accused of committing human rights violations within the isolated and authoritarian East Asian nation, which is known for its frequent threats against the U.S. and South Korea. Earlier this month, a U.S. intelligence report raised alarms about North Korea's deployment of chemical weapons.
The former president has also faced condemnation for refusing to reject the idea of being a "dictator" if he wins reelection in November.
During a December town hall with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Trump was asked to promise that he would never "abuse power as retribution against anybody" if he wins the 2024 presidential election.
Trump replied: "Except for Day One," adding: "I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill," he added in reference to his vow to expand oil drilling in the U.S.
The campaign of President Joe Biden, Trump's presumptive Democratic opponent, has used the dictator remarks to suggest the Republican is a danger to democracy and should not be allowed back in the White House.
Bolton has also maintained that Trump should not be elected to a second term, noting that the former president's mounting debt amid his legal cases makes him vulnerable to foreign influence and unfit for office.
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Maura Zurick is the Newsweek Weekend Night Editor based in Cleveland, Ohio. Her focus is reporting on U.S. national news ... Read more
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