Washington Post columnist Max Boot was seen recently on the CNN program “Anderson Cooper 360,” where he criticized President Trump for Trump’s praise of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump had called Kim a “great leader” and saying it was an honor to be with him during their recent meeting in Vietnam.

Discussion on the CNN program turned negatively, citing that Kim had violated human rights and was responsible for the deaths of many people.

Cooper began by saying that Trump might have wanted to “not alienate Kim Jong-un for the greater good.”

However, he then goes on and says, “…there are ways to not alienate Kim Jong-un and continue negotiations or continue involvement without praising him as, you know, a real leader, you know, a great guy.”

Boot then goes into how Trump “has an endless appetite for flattery,” and, “he [Trump] imagines by flattering these foreign dictators he can manipulate them.” He condemned Trump’s actions, saying, “It’s degrading. It’s humiliating.”

Otto Warmbier’s family also released statements saying that, “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto…Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity…No excuse or lavish praise can change that.”

Warmbier was the American citizen who died in North Korea’s custody.

Trump had described Kim as, “a real personality and he’s very smart. He’s sharp as you can be, and he’s a real leader, and he’s pretty mercurial.”

Former vice president Joe Biden also called Kim Jong Un and Trump’s relationship a “love affair” and that “our national reputation is being tarnished.”

On the other hand, conservative writer Rachael Kisman supported Trump saying that “Trump was right to praise him. If you are meeting with someone who is new to foreign relations, you need to make him feel welcome. And by praising him, Trump was making it easier to get us a good deal.”

“Trump was establishing a good relation with Kim Jong Un, which is very important when trying to make a major deal,” Thomas Jacobs, a political marketing expert added, “and of course, the media makes a huge deal of something tiny — because it is Trump.”

Trump also claimed he had been “misinterpreted.” Then again, Trump has been known to make friends with human right abusers. For example, during March of 2018, Trump congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his reelection, despite being specifically told not do so. Trump, in the past, has also tweeted, “…Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing…….”

While Trump has strived for friendship with Kim Jong Un and Putin, he has also inconsistently enforced his “America First” policy, including pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, and possibly, the North America Free Trade Agreement.

While some people applauded Trump’s progress, most people still responded negatively to Trump’s praising.

VIDEO FULL TRANSCRIPT

ANDERSON: Joining us is USA Today columnist Kiersten Powers. Michael Caputo, and Max Boot, “Washington Post” columnist and author of The Corrosion of Conservatism, Why I Left The Right. Max, I don’t even know what to ask. But why do you think this — is it just he’s trying to gain leverage in negotiations and not alienate Kim Jong-un for the greater good? I guess that’s one argument. But the negotiations have broken down. He seems to genuinely — I mean, there are ways to not alienate Kim Jong-un and continue negotiations or continue involvement without praising him as, you know, a real leader, you know, a great guy.

BOOT: “Exactly right, Anderson. I think the problem fundamentally here is that Donald Trump has an endless appetite for flattery. So he imagines that because he knows he can be manipulated by people who flatter him, he imagines by flattering these foreign dictators he can manipulate them. That theory, there’s no evidence to support it. Look at what happened in Hanoi. It doesn’t matter how often Donald Trump says he’s best buddies with Kim Jong-un. At the end of the day, Kim really likes having nuclear weapons. He’s not going to have them up no matter how much he’s flattered, but Donald Trump has not stopped flattering him. This is obscene. It’s degrading. It’s humiliating. I get that sometimes you have to deal with unpleasant leaders, but when FDR met with Josef Stalin, he didn’t feel compelled to exonerate Stalin from the crimes of the gulag or the Ukrainian famine. You can deal with these leaders and keep your dignity, but Donald Trump does not.”

Video Source: CNN Live, AC360

Transcript Source: Grabien

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