State Department spokesperson: Diplomats aren’t used to Trump’s ‘blunt talk’

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert says that foreign diplomats have been “surprised” by President Trump’s often blunt talk in an interview broadcast Sunday.

Speaking to AM 970 The Answer, Nauert told host John Catsimatidis that other world leaders aren’t used to plainspoken speeches like the one Trump gave at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

“I think some of the other nations are a little bit surprised by the president’s plainspokenness,” Nauert said in the interview.

“Here in the U.S., we think of that as a good thing … but these diplomats aren’t necessarily used to that kind of blunt talk,” Nauert said, adding that Trump’s “blunt talk” was helpful for dealing with North Korea’s nuclear aggression.

The nation tested its sixth ballistic missile this month, firing a rocket over neighboring Japan into the Pacific Ocean.

“It’s helping the world to now better understand exactly where we stand, and let folks know there will be consequences, for example, for the destabilizing activities of North Korea. We will hold them to account.”{mosads}

North Korea, Nauert said, is “starving” for cash in the face of increased U.N. sanctions passed earlier this month.

“We saw that North Korea started to stock up on lots of supplies earlier this year,” Nauert said. “We believe they were doing that knowing there would be more sanctions. We believe they are starting to run low on some of these supplies.

“To the extent that we can starve them, of money,” she added, “they will start to feel the pinch.”

North Korea responded to Trump’s speech at the U.N. with a rare video statement from leader Kim Jong Un, who called Trump a “frightened dog” and a “mentally deranged dotard.”