Trump: US Ready to Deal With Any ‘Christmas Gift’ From Kim

Says he's confident US will deal successfully with whatever happens

While media outlets have been playing up North Korea’s talk of a “Christmas gift” for the US as presumably a missile test of some sort, President Trump was dismissive of the idea, saying he’s confident that whatever it is, the US will handle it successfully.

“We’ll find out what the surprise is and we’ll deal with it very successfully,” Trump told reporters. He further speculated that North Korea’s Kim might send “a beautiful vase as opposed to a missile test.”

North Korea has never really said what it was going to do, but Western news outlets have been predicting the worst, and are already portraying it as damaging to President Trump’s policy stance on North Korea.

And yet, while North Korea was very clear they didn’t want talks just to give Trump “something to brag about,” they likewise probably don’t want to fire a missile just to give Trump’s political rivals the same thing. That might mean there isn’t going to be any big, showy launch unless North Korea figures it stands to gain them something.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.