President Donald Trump spoke to Sean Hannity about his landmark Singapore summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
Trump said that as much as he "hated" to use violent rhetoric against Kim several months ago, "without the rhetoric, we wouldn't be here."
.@POTUS: "The rhetoric— I hated to do it, sometimes I felt foolish doing it— but we had no choice." #Hannity https://t.co/DcyiETW4s3 pic.twitter.com/74irekOOvJ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 13, 2018
Trump said that after exchanging verbal barbs -- with Trump calling Kim "little rocket man" and Kim calling Trump "a dotard" -- the two men grew to further respect each other.
President @realDonaldTrump praises Kim Jong Un as 'strong,' 'smart' and a 'great negotiator' in #Hannity interview https://t.co/mUYyFYvwyB
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 13, 2018
He said that Kim is "very smart" and a "good negotiator."
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.@seanhannity on #TrumpKimSummit: "A solid first step in negotiating what is the complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." #Hannity https://t.co/DcyiETW4s3 pic.twitter.com/aNUw6a7BkP
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 13, 2018
.@POTUS on #TrumpKimSummit: "[Past administrations] never got it done. And they were never this close either." #Hannity https://t.co/DcyiETW4s3 pic.twitter.com/iVPu20wnLR
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 13, 2018
"We got a lot more done [Tuesday] than I ever thought possible," he said of the meeting with Kim.
Trump said he believes that Kim will "immediately" begin dismantling his nuclear complexes when he arrives back in Pyongyang.
He added that he and Kim discussed how relations were much different between previous American presidents and Kim's ancestors Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung.
Hannity also asked if there is a "history lesson" where it pertains to the initial rhetoric.
He said that President Ronald Reagan famously called the U.S.S.R. the "evil empire" before coming to an agreement to dismantle Checkpoint Charlie and tear down the Berlin Wall.
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