Trump is reportedly constantly gushing about Kim Jong Un to weirded-out world leaders

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Everyone has a friend, or maybe a colleague, who repeats stories to the same audience, over and over. For the leaders of Group of Seven nations, that's President Trump, BuzzFeed news reports.

At the last two summit G-7 summit meetings, Trump reportedly told the same exact story — with the same exact punchline — about his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In brief, Trump recounted how Kim was offended specifically by Trump calling him "little," back in the day when the two leaders would spout insults at each other from afar. Trump apparently still gets a kick out of the fact that Kim, who is reportedly 5 feet 7 inches tall, was offended not by being called Rocket Man, but by the modifier.

Trump reportedly then went on a strange, non sequitur tangent about Kim during the summit that was seemingly less innocuous. He reportedly described Kim as simultaneously "brutal" and a "great guy," while pointing out he had risen to power by the age of 25 in a difficult environment. Those remarks aren't dissimilar from things Trump has said about the North Korean leader publicly, but BuzzFeed notes it's representative of how Trump's Twitter persona might not be so different from how he handles business behind closed doors. It's also seemingly an example of what impresses Trump in his fellow leaders.

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"He is so fascinated with him," one source with direct knowledge of the G-7 discussions said, referring to Trump's interest in Kim. "He has a childish fascination with brutality." British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the new guy in the group, reportedly tried to engage with Trump's commentary briefly, but the other leaders reportedly just sat back in their chairs at a loss for words, a source said. Read more at BuzzFeed News.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.