- Trump offered Kim Jong Un a ride home on Air Force One, a new BBC series has revealed.
- The two had met for their second negotiations in Vietnam in 2019, which ultimately failed.
- Trump said he could get Kim home in two hours, but the former declined the invitation.
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Former President Donald Trump offered North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a ride home with Air Force One after the two met for the second time at a summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2019, a new BBC documentary has revealed .
The three-part series, entitled “Trump Takes On the World,” reveals new details about how Trump and Kim negotiated North Korea’s nuclear program, which ultimately ended without a deal.
Trump, who had left the meeting abruptly, told the press at the time, “Sometimes you just have to walk.”
But the former president didn’t leave without first making an unusual offer.
“President Trump offered Kim a ride home on Air Force One,” Matthew Pottinger, Trump’s National Security Council chief Asia pundit, told the BBC.
The president knew that Kim had come to Hanoi on a multi-day train journey through China, and the president said, “ I can take you home in two hours if you want. ‘It was a graceful gesture,’ he added.
Kim declined the offer, said Pottinger.
US President Donald Trump addresses supporters at a campaign rally at MBS International Airport in Freeland, Michigan on Sept. 10, 2020.
Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
The BBC series also includes an interview with former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton, who attended the summit.
Bolton said that as they drove to the meeting, Trump was confident he could make a deal once he was in the room with Kim.
“Trump clearly thought he had a new best friend in Kim Jong Un,” said Bolton, who has since had a falling out with Trump, according to the Sunday Times. “Trump thought US-North Korea relations were great because he and Kim were buddies. It’s a very dangerous perception.”
Kim and Trump met for the third and final time in the Korean Demilitarized Zone three months later, but there was no further progress.
The couple had a complicated relationship during Trump’s four years as president.
Trump had called the North Korea leader a “little rocket man” and threatened “fire and rage,” but later suggested they were very close friends, even describing him as “a very smart man,” according to the BBC.
“Trump Takes on the World,” directed by Tim Stirzaker, will be broadcast on BBC2 on Wednesday.