Trump told Bob Woodward 'I don't think Obama's smart' but Kim Jong Un is 'far beyond smart'

President Trump told Bob Woodward he habitually refers to his predecessor, the 44th president, as "Barack Hussein," Woodward writes in his forthcoming book, Rage, according to excerpts in The Washington Post. "I don't think Obama's smart," Trump added. "I think he's highly overrated. And I don't think he's a great speaker." And he isn't the only one unimpressed with Obama, Trump said, relaying that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un thought Obama was "an a--hole."

When Trump met Kim for the first time, he thought "Holy sh-t," Kim is "far beyond smart," the president told Woodward. The two leaders had an instant chemistry, Trump explained, comparing it to a whirlwind romance: "You meet a woman. In one second, you know whether or not it's going to happen." And he showed Woodward Kim's gushing letters, which included phrases like "another historic meeting between myself and Your Excellency reminiscent of a scene from a fantasy film," and "that moment of history when I firmly held Your Excellency's hand at the beautiful and sacred location as the whole world watched."

Trump said he was particularly pleased Kim called him "Excellency," Woodward reports, and he said the North Korean dictator "tells me everything," including a graphic description of having his uncle butchered. Trump would not let Woodward see his own letters to Kim, calling them "so top secret," but Woodward got ahold of them anyway.

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

Trump is aware of his affinity for authoritarian strongmen like Kim, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Woodward writes. "It's funny, the relationships I have, the tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them," Trump told him. "You know? Explain that to me someday, okay?"

The president's personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, suggests Trump's Putin fixation is about money, but he told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday that "his hatred for Barack Obama is plain and simple: He's Black, he went to Harvard Law, he graduated the top of his class, he's incredibly articulate, and he's all the things that Donald Trump wants to be, and he just can't handle it."