Trump claims North Korea’s Kim Jong Un used a derogatory term to question Biden’s mental fitness

Trump Kim Biden mental: Ex-president claims Kim Jong Un called Biden ‘old man with dementia’

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Donald Trump told a Phoenix rally crowd late Saturday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un privately mocked Joe Biden’s mental acuity with an English slur, repeating the alleged insult aloud.

The revelation landed eight days after Trump left the Manhattan courtroom where his hush-money trial is entering its sixth week, instantly scrambling the 2024 campaign narrative and raising fresh questions about what else the two leaders said during their unprecedented face-to-face meetings.

Trump has met Kim three times, more than any sitting U.S. president, and the pair exchanged a series of what Trump once called “love letters.” The former president’s decision to broadcast Kim’s reported insult at a campaign stop marks the first time he has publicly detailed derogatory comments the North Korean leader allegedly made about Biden, whom Trump defeated in 2020 and may face again in November.

“I got to know him very well,” Trump told supporters at the Arizona Federal Theatre, describing a moment he said occurred during their 2019 Hanoi summit. “He points to the cameras and says, ‘That guy, old man with dementia.’ Those were his exact words.”

The crowd erupted in cheers. Trump basked in the moment, then added: “I didn’t argue with him.”

North Korea’s state media has previously called Biden a “rabid dog” and “fool of low IQ,” but those attacks were issued in Korean-language statements aimed at domestic audiences. Pyongyang has not responded to Trump’s latest claim, made in English on U.S. soil, and there is no independent confirmation the exchange took place.

Kim’s reported choice of phrase echoes language Trump himself has used. During the 2020 campaign Trump repeatedly claimed Biden showed signs of cognitive decline, demanding drug tests before debates and accusing his rival of stumbling over words. Biden, now 81, has dismissed such criticism as partisan smears.

The White House declined to comment Sunday morning. A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for additional detail about when exactly Kim made the remark or whether any U.S. interpreters or aides witnessed it.

Former national security adviser John Bolton, who attended the Hanoi summit, told reporters he never heard Kim use those words. “I was in every meeting,” Bolton said. “This did not happen.”

Other Trump-era officials offered mixed accounts. One former senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kim occasionally made disparaging comments about U.S. politicians during private sessions, but never heard the “dementia” remark specifically. A second former aide said Trump sometimes relayed Kim’s barbed observations in casual settings after formal talks ended.

The episode highlights the unusual intimacy Trump cultivated with a dictator who presides over prison camps and once had his uncle executed. Since leaving office Trump has kept a photo of the two men shaking hands atop the Korean border in his Mar-a-Lago office, telling visitors it proves his diplomatic prowess.

Democrats pounced on the anecdote. “Trump is bragging that a murderous tyrant insulted the current president,” Senator Chris Murphy wrote on social media. “This is where the Republican Party is in 2026.”

Republican strategists offered more measured reactions. “It plays well with the base,” one adviser to a swing-state GOP senator told GlobalBeat, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. “But suburban voters hear that and remember why they left Trump in 2020.”

The timing is awkward for Trump, who trails Biden in most national polls six months before election day. Independent voters cite foreign-policy competence as a top concern, and footage of Trump laughing along with Kim’s alleged insult is already surfacing in Democratic advertising cuts.

North Korea watchers caution against reading too much into Kim’s choice of words. “Insulting U.S. leaders is standard Pyongyang playbook,” said Jenny Town of the Washington-based Stimson Center. “What’s new is an American president repeating the insult on stage like it’s a punch-line.”

Pyongyang has yet to acknowledge Trump’s remarks. North Korea’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to emailed questions Sunday. State media last mentioned Biden on April 29, calling his administration “a gamble of history doomed to ruin.”

The episode may complicate already stalled denuclearization talks. Biden has offered to meet Kim without preconditions, but only if North Korea first signals seriousness about abandoning nuclear weapons. Kim has rejected incremental diplomacy, demanding sanctions relief up front.

Background

Trump’s first meeting with Kim occurred at the June 2018 Singapore summit, producing a vague joint statement committing to “complete denuclearization.” Follow-up negotiations in Hanoi collapsed the next year when Trump walked out after Kim demanded full sanctions removal in exchange for dismantling only one nuclear facility. A third encounter at the Korean Demilitarized Zone in June 2019 lasted only 45 minutes, consisting largely of a photo-op inside North Korean territory. No formal agreement ever emerged from the process, and North Korea has since expanded both its missile arsenal and its plutonium stockpile, according to U.N. monitors.

Biden served as Barack Obama’s vice president during earlier failed efforts to curtail Pyongyang’s program. He once called Kim a “thug,” prompting North Korean media to refer to him as a “running dog.” After taking office in 2021 Biden ordered a policy review that concluded the Trump outreach had achieved little, opting instead for a calibrated approach combining sanctions enforcement with offers of humanitarian aid.

What’s Next

Trump is scheduled to hold campaign rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin this week, where aides expect he will repeat the Kim anecdote. Biden leaves Wednesday for a G7 summit in Italy, where leaders plan to discuss North Korea’s sanctions evasion. U.N. monitors will brief the Security Council on June 15 about Pyongyang’s recent ballistic missile tests, ensuring the hermit state remains in the 2024 campaign spotlight whether either candidate wants it or not.

The former president’s willingness to trade personal barbs with a nuclear-armed adversary also previews the foreign-policy tone of a potential second term, when Trump would again face decisions about summits, sanctions, and whether to tweet taunts at 3 a.m.