President Trump said Tuesday he was prepared to launch a military attack on North Korea, and slammed dictator Kim Jong Un for taunting him and threatening to fire nukes at the US.
“We are totally prepared for the [military] option. Not a preferred option. If we take that option, it will be devastating, I can tell you that. Devastating for North Korea. That’s called the military option. If we have to take it, we will,” Trump said in response to a question during a Rose Garden news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Trump — who dubbed Kim “Rocket Man” and threatened to totally destroy North Korea and its 25 million people during a speech last week at the UN — ripped the despot for his own insults.
“He is acting very badly. He is saying things that should never, ever be said, and we’re replying to those things,” the commander-in-chief declared.
Kim has called Trump, among other things, “mentally deranged” and “a dotard,” which means a person who has lost his marbles.
Trump also disparaged previous US administrations for leaving him “a mess.”
“This is a situation that should have been handled 25 years ago, 15 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, and it could have been handled very easily. You had various administrations which left me a mess,” the president said.
“But I’ll fix the mess,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”