Trump lavished praise on Kim Jong Un's 'very nice' letter. A few minutes later, he said he hadn't even read it.

Trump made the decision to meet with Kim Jong Un based on a letter he didn't even read.

Trump announced on Friday that he would meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore after all. He decided the summit was back on after meeting with a North Korean envoy who came to deliver a letter from Kim.

The two leaders have been swapping letters in recent weeks, and apparently their pen pal relationship has paid off — Trump excitedly told reporters that relations between the U.S. and North Korea were moving in a "positive" direction. The latest letter changed Trump's mind after he scrapped plans for a summit in Singapore last month, he said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The letter was "very nice," Trump said. Moments later, he admitted that he hadn't read it yet. "I may be in for a big surprise, folks," he said.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Kim wrote to Trump about his desire to keep the summit as scheduled, but didn't suggest that North Korea would be willing to offer any concessions, as U.S. officials said would be necessary to achieve the goal of denuclearization. It remains to be seen whether Trump will change his tune once he reads the fine print — or reads any print at all.