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Trump: We Are 'Doing Very Well' in Negotiations With North Korea

April 26, 2018

President Donald Trump said Thursday during an interview with "Fox & Friends" that preparations are going "very well" for his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"We know that it's confidential, but can you give us any more information on the one-on-one that Mike Pompeo had with Kim Jong Un? A lot of people are hungry for some details," Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade said.

Reports emerged last week that CIA Director Mike Pompeo had secretly met with Kim ahead of a planned summit between the young North Korean dictator and Trump himself, which is expected to occur in the next two months.

Trump said his administration is "doing very well" with North Korea before he went on to slam Obama administration Secretary of State John Kerry for his negotiating skills. He said Kerry was "the worst negotiator" he has ever seen and that he should have gotten a better deal with the Iran nuclear deal.

"So it could be that I walk out quickly, with respect, but it could be that the meeting doesn't even take place. Who knows? But I can tell right now that they want to meet," Trump added, referencing the current negotiations with North Korea.

On the subject of Pompeo's visit to North Korea, Trump said it wasn't originally planned for him to meet with Kim, but the arrangements were made after he was in the region.

"Mike Pompeo did go there. He wasn't supposed to meet with Kim Jong Un, but he did. They arranged actually while he was there to say hello," Trump added. "We have incredible pictures of the two talking and meeting, which I would love to release if we can, I'll do that. Actually, it's not a bad idea."

"So it was just a hello, Mr. President?" one of the co-hosts asked.

Trump said it was "more than hello" and that they got along during their meeting, which lasted more than an hour.

Trump then shifted to criticize MSNBC "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd's assessment of the situation, slamming Todd for recently accusing Trump of "giving up" a lot during negotiations compared to North Korea.

"This was at the beginning of 'Meet the Press,' which this guy shouldn't even be on the show, so I said to myself ... I have't given up anything. I haven't even talked about it. I haven't given up anything. I'm not giving up much. They've given up denuclearization, testing, research, [and] we're going to close different sites," Trump said.