Trump demands nuclear disarmament from wrong country

Two days after Trump touted his tough talk with North Korea, the White House was forced to admit that he got his countries mixed up.

By Caroline Orr - March 06, 2018

Speaking to a crowd of journalists on Saturday night, Trump claimed that he had spoken with North Korea recently and issued a demand for them to “de-nuke.”

That would be major news — if it were true.

But as it turns out, Trump was referencing the wrong Korea when he made the remarks at the annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, DC.

“They, by the way, called up a couple of days ago and said, ‘We would like to talk,'” Trump claimed, referring to North Korea.

“And I said, ‘So would we, but you have to de-nuke, you have to de-nuke,'” he added.

Less than 48 hours later, the White House was forced to clarify Trump’s comments, admitting that Trump “did not have a call with the North Koreans.”

Speaking to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, a senior official from the National Security Council (NSC) said Trump was actually referencing a March 1 phone call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Notably, South Korea ended its nuclear weapons program decades ago.

It’s unclear if Trump was lying when he said he talked to North Korea, or if he actually believed he was speaking with North Korean officials during his phone call with the leader of South Korea.

Either way, this is yet another example of Trump’s reckless approach to dealing with North Korea’s nuclear program.

Earlier this year, the White House leaked an outrageous plan to launch a preemptive strike on North Korea after Trump’s twitter rants failed to win over the country’s despotic leader.

Although he’s not yelling “fire and fury” or threatening to start an imminent nuclear war, Trump’s latest remarks about North Korea are every bit as ignorant and careless as his previous ones.

Caroline Orr