A leaked transcript of a phone call between President Trump and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte shows Mr. Trump congratulating his counterpart for a “great job” on a controversial drug crackdown and debating how to control North Korea’s nuclear “madman,” Kim Jong-un.
“l just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Duterte in the April 29 conversation, according to a Filipino government transcript. “Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing.”
Mr. Duterte, whom human rights groups say has encouraged extrajudicial killings in the crackdown, told Mr. Trump that drugs are “the scourge of my nation” and that he had to take steps to “preserve” his country.
Mr. Trump responded, “I understand that and fully understand that, and I think we had a previous president who did not understand that.”
The six-page transcript was published by The Intercept, which said the Filipino government confirmed its authenticity. The White House had no immediate comment on the document.
Mr. Duterte this week is confronting attacks by Islamic State-linked militants on the Philippines island of Mindanao, where he has declared martial law. Thousands of civilians fled fighting Wednesday as troops battled the Muslim militants, who have taken over large parts of a city, and captured a Catholic priest and other Christians.
The phone call with Mr. Trump occurred while Mr. Duterte was hosting a summit of Southeast Asian heads of state. The Filipino leader told Mr. Trump that the other leaders were “really nervous about [the] situation in [the] Korean Peninsula” and encouraged Mr. Trump to “keep the pressure” on North Korea.
“As long as those rockets and warheads are in the hands of Kim Jong-un, we will never be safe, as there’s no telling what will happen next,” Mr. Duterte said.
“What’s your opinion of him, Rodrigo?” Mr. Trump asked. “Are we dealing with someone who is stable or not stable?”
Mr. Duterte replied, “He is not stable, Mr. President, as he keeps smiling when he explodes a rocket. He even has gone against China, the last country he should rebuke. But it seems from his face [he] is laughing always, and there’s a dangerous toy in his hands [that] would create so much agony and suffering for all mankind.”
“Well, he has got the power, but he doesn’t have the delivery system,” Mr. Trump said. “All his rockets are crashing, that’s the good news. But eventually, when he gets that delivery system” that could change, Mr. Trump said.
North Korea, which has conducted several failed tests of ballistic missiles this year, launched a solid-fuel Pukguksong-2 missile Sunday that flew about 310 miles and reached a height of 350 miles before plunging in the Pacific Ocean. Pyongyang called it a successful test.
In the phone call, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Duterte about U.S. efforts to persuade China to exert more economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea. Mr. Duterte agreed that China “will play a very important role.”
“He is playing with his bombs, his toys, and from the looks of it, his mind is not working well, and he might just go crazy one moment,” Mr. Duterte said of the North Korean leader. “Every generation has a madman; in our generation [it] is Kim Jong-un. You are dealing with a very delicate problem.”
Mr. Trump assured him, “We can handle it.”
“We have a lot of firepower over there,” Mr. Trump said. “We have two submarines, the best in the world — we have two nuclear submarines, not that we want to use them at all. … We can’t let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that. We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20, but we don’t want to use it.”
Mr. Trump said that Chinese President Xi Jinping is a “good guy,” and urged Mr. Duterte to talk with Mr. Xi about putting more pressure on North Korea to scale back its nuclear and missile programs.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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