John Brennan Says Donald Trump ‘Duped’ By North Korea, Slams His Behavior As ‘Very Abnormal’
Former CIA director John Brennan didn’t hold back when it came to giving his opinion on the president’s latest tweet on North Korean policy, in which he announced that he had ordered the withdrawal of sanctions on the hermit nation, according to the HuffPost.
“It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions,” Trump tweeted on Friday, pushing his own Treasury Department into a world of confusion after it had made the decision to slap further sanctions on North Korea on Thursday.
Brennan, who works as an MSNBC national security analyst, told the network that Donald Trump was being taken for a ride by North Korea, despite the president’s repeated assertion that he had made headway into his relationship with Kim Jong Un. The former CIA director argued that putting sanctions on the Asian nation had been a collaborative decision undertaken by a host of U.S. agencies, and for the president to undo all of that with one tweet spoke of his “mindless” ignorance.
“I think he’s been duped over the last two years when it comes to North Korea,” Brennan said, pointing out that Kim Jong Un had no intention of denuclearizing his country, no matter what he had told Trump during his two meetings with the U.S. president.
Fmr. director of CIA John Brennan says President Trump's reversal on North Korea sanctions shows he's been 'duped.'https://t.co/Ppunog0X3U
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 23, 2019
Brennan went on to blast Trump for making the decision to withdraw the sanctions for Kim Jong Un, to whom, by his own admission, the president has taken a liking to. Brennan slammed Trump for “arbitrarily, unilaterally” and “mindlessly” withdrawing the sanctions for Kim.
“I think it just demonstrates once again that he’s willing to give up a lot of things,” Brennan added, noting that the U.S. had decided to call off the many joint-military exercises with South Korea which would have protected the world against any untimely attacks by North Korea. He said Trump’s decisions were displaying a pattern of “very abnormal” and “bizarre” behavior.
“It’s demonstrating his assertiveness that he wants to just be impetuous and make decisions without the understanding of how this is going to reverberate as far as the impact on U.S. national security.”
Earlier, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had confirmed that the president had ordered to withdraw the sanctions on North Korea, saying he didn’t think they were necessary because “he likes Chairman Kim.”
