Trump said he and Kim Jong Un had 'good chemistry'

Former President Donald Trump told Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward that he had "good chemistry" with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, The Hill reports, per a clip from Woodward's new audiobook.

In the clip from The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward's 20 Interviews with President Donald Trump, released Tuesday, the former president can be heard telling Woodward he is "the only one [Kim] deals with."

"The word chemistry. You meet somebody and you have a good chemistry," Trump continued. "You meet a woman. In one second, you know whether or not it's all going to happen." The former president had, during his tenure, met with the North Korean leader personally to push "for peace talks between the U.S., North Korea, and South Korea," The Hill notes.

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

YouTube

Watch On

A clip of the conversation aired on CNN on Monday, and is also included in a opinions essay Woodward penned for the Post.

Speaking with CNN's Jake Tapper, Woodward criticized Trump's cavalier approach toward the "thuggish" Kim, contrasting it with that of former Defense Secretary James Mattis. "I am increasingly baffled the more I hear the casual disconnect, the sense [Trump] has of obligation to himself, I guess, about Kim Jong Un. ... I've never heard another president say anything like that," Woodward told Tapper.