Senate

McConnell warns Trump: Don’t get ‘snookered’ by North Korea

by Jordain Carney - 06/01/18 5:15 PM ET

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned President Trump on Friday not to get “snookered” by North Korea, as the president announced that a meeting this month with Kim Jong Un in Singapore was back on.

“I think for these situations to work you have to not want the deal too much. If you fall in love with the deal and it’s too important for you to get it … you could get snookered. And I think the president’s fully aware of that,” McConnell said at a Greater Louisville Inc. Congressional Summit in Kentucky.

He added that his “advice to the president is, if you’re a great dealmaker, be interested in the details.”

{mosads}After meeting with North Korean officials on Friday, Trump reversed course and said his meeting with Kim was back on. Last week he had canceled the June 12 summit, citing North Korea’s “tremendous anger and open hostility” toward the U.S.

McConnell pointed to the Iran nuclear deal as the type of agreement Trump should avoid. And he predicted that “we’re a long way” from a denuclearized North Korea.

“I think you can anticipate the North Koreans making every effort they can to get sanctions and other relief and to give up as little as possible,” McConnell added.

Republicans have been supportive of Trump’s talks with North Korea, while skeptical that the country will ultimately give up its nuclear capabilities.

McConnell added on Friday that he was supportive of the summit but “skeptical.”

“I just don’t think we ought to get our hopes up here that the North Koreans are going to easily give up the thing that guarantees this regime stays in power,” he said.

Tags Donald Trump Donald Trump Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Mitch McConnell Mitch McConnell Politics of the United States