Kim Jong-un could have avoided the latest round of talks between North Korea and the U.S. from collapsing by reading President Trump’s book, “The Art of the Deal,” Sebastian Gorka said Thursday.
Mr. Gorka, Mr. Trump’s former national security deputy adviser, recommended the president’s book during an interview conducted shortly after a bilateral summit held in Hanoi, Vietnam, prematurely ended without an agreement reached regarding North Korea’s nuclear program.
“Give me your sense of what the White House should do here going forward, both with the policy toward North Korea and the messaging to the American people about how this is going,” radio host Joshua Johnson asked Mr. Gorka during an episode of NPR’s “1A” program.
“Well the messaging remains the same,” Mr. Gorka responded. “The president and his team have been very clear that under the Obama administration you had a rocket launch from North Korea every 24 days. That’s incredible. We haven’t had any nuclear detonations or tests of warheads. We haven’t had any missile launches since the Singapore summit. That is the narrative that needs be maintained with the addition from Vietnam that clearly, Kim and his coterie didn’t read the president’s book, ’The Art of the Deal.’ “
Co-written by Mr. Trump and journalist Tony Schwartz, “The Art of the Deal” spent several months on the top of The New York Times best-seller list following its initial publication in 1987.
Dennis Rodman, a former professional basketball star who is among a handful of humans personally acquainted with both Mr. Trump and his North Korean counterpart, gifted the latter a copy of “The Art of the Deal” in 2017.
“I tell everybody, if you want to understand the president, you need to start with his book, ’The Art of the Deal.’ Because rule number one of the president’s own textbook on how you negotiate is never be so vested in any deal,” Mr. Gorka continued.
“Whether it’s real estate in Manhattan or denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, never be so vested that you are not prepared to walk away from the table. And that’s what the president did yesterday, and now there’s going to be a very clear cooling-off period where Kim has to think about this,” Mr. Gorka said.
This week’s summit in Vietnam was the second held between both leaders since Mr. Trump took office. They previously met in Singapore in June 2018.
Currently a contributor for Fox News, Mr. Gorka served in the White House through August 2017. His comments were first reported by Media Matters, a watchdog site that monitors right-wing media.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.