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Axis of Autocrats?

Trump Makes Kim Jong Un A Promise: No More Spying On North Korea

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President Donald Trump answers questions before boarding Marine One on June 11, 2019 (Andrew Feinberg / Breakfast Media)

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2019 — The United States will not recruit or “run” agents to gain intelligence on North Korea, President Trump said Tuesday, citing yet another “beautiful letter” he’d received from North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un.

Trump was speaking to reporters before boarding Marine One en route to Iowa, when he was asked about a report by the Wall Street Journal alleging that that Kim’s half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, had been a Central Intelligence Agency asset.

“I don’t know, I have not heard about that,” Trump said. He then proceeded to contradict himself and promise Kim regime that there would be no further spying against him by the United States.

“I saw the information about the CIA with respect to his brother or half-brother, and I would tell him that would not happen under my auspices, that’s for sure,” Trump said, adding for emphasis: “I would not let that happen under my auspices.”

Trump then revealed that he’d received “a beautiful letter” from the North Korean dictator.

“I can’t show you the letter, obviously, but it was very personal, very warm, very nice letter,” Trump said, adding that the so-called Hermit Kingdom has “great potential” under Kim’s leadership.

When asked if Trump had ordered any intelligence agencies to cease operations directed at North Korea, a spokesperson for Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates referred questions to the White House.

The White House had not yet responded to a request for comment at our deadline.

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Andrew Feinberg covers the White House, Capitol Hill, and anywhere else news happens for BeltwayBreakfast.com and BroadbandBreakfast.com. He has reported on policy and politics in the nation's capital since 2007, and his writing has appeared in publications like The Hill, Politico, Communications Daily, Silicon Angle, and Washington Business Journal. He has also appeared on both daytime and prime radio and television news programs on NPR, Sirius-XM, CNN, MSNBC, ABC (Australia), Al Jazeera, NBC Digital, Voice of America, TV Rain (Russia) and CBS News. Andrew wishes he could say he lives in Washington, DC with his dog, but unfortunately, he lives in a no-dogs building in suburban Maryland.

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Axis of Autocrats?

Trump Offers Praise For ‘Highly Respected’ Orban, Announces Plans For Putin, Xi Meetings

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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (screenshot/C-SPAN)

WASHINGTON, May 13, 2019 — President Trump on Monday announced he would soon meet with two autocrats while offering praise for a third strongman who has systematically rolled back democratic freedoms in his own country.

“[Hungarian Prime Minister] Viktor Orban has done a tremendous job in so many different ways,” Trump said during an Oval Office photo opportunity with the proponent of so-called “illiberal democracy.”

He later added that he plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the upcoming G20 summit, which will take place in Japan this July.

Since assuming office, Trump has repeatedly clashed with many of the democratically-elected leaders of major American allies, while bragging of his strong relationships with budding autocrats like Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, and Hungary’s Orban, whose Fidesz party was recently suspended from its place in the EU Parliament’s European People’s Party over Hungary’s rollbacks of press and academic freedom, as well as other human rights matters.

Still, Trump claimed that the Hungarian ethno-nationalist leader is “respected all over Europe.”

When given a chance to address the assembled reporters, Orban said that Hungary is “proud to stand with the United States against illegal migration…and to protect and help Christian communities all over the world.”

Trump responded with more praise, telling Orban that he has been “great you have been great with respect to Christian communities.”

“You have really put a block up [against Muslim refugees] and we appreciate that very much,” he added.

Orban, who previously served as Hungary’s Prime Minister from 1998 through 2002, visited the White House during his first term in office. But Monday’s visit was first since his Fidesz party returned to power in 2010, allowing him to embark on a series of constitutional changes meant to replace the democratic government Hungary established after the fall of the Soviet Union what he calls “illiberal democracy,” a system — largely devised by Orban himself — under which laws are structured to restrict press freedom, hinder political opposition, and curtail the rights of ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities.

While his hard-line immigration policies and moves to curtail a free press and academic freedom have drawn widespread condemnation from most European leaders and the Obama administration, Orban’s government has become a favorite of American white nationalists, who point to Hungary’s draconian anti-immigration policies as a model for the United States to follow.

Asked whether he had any concerns about Hungary’s retreat from democracy, Trump chose to defend Orban, who he called a “tough” and “highly respected man, who has done the right thing, according to many people, on immigration.”

Orban, for his part, said his country’s new constitution is “functioning well.”

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