President Donald Trump, after saying the GOP tax proposal would serve as “rocket fuel” for the American economy, took a passing shot at Kim Jong Un, whom he again derided as “Lil’ Rocket Man.” | Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images Trump: North Korea's Kim a 'sick puppy'

Lil’ Rocket Man. Dotard. Frightened dog.

President Donald Trump escalated his war of words with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday by adding another insult to their long list of traded barbs: “Sick puppy.”


The remarks came as Trump held a rally in St. Charles, Missouri, to push for the Senate’s passage of its tax bill.

Trump, after saying the GOP tax proposal would serve as “rocket fuel” for the American economy, took a passing shot at Kim, whom he again derided as “Lil’ Rocket Man.”

“He is a sick puppy,” Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters.

The remarks come on the heels of Pyongyang’s latest test of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday, its first in over two months. Earlier Wednesday, the president vowed that “additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders expanded on the White House’s plan during a later interview on Fox News.

“He said earlier today we’re going to continue putting maximum pressure on North Korea and to do it by increasing and adding additional sanctions,” she said.

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The president and Kim have repeatedly sparred since Trump entered office, publicly trading insults as the two nations face off over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Kim in September called Trump “a frightened dog” and a “gangster fond of playing with fire.”

He also set the internet ablaze with a unique charge: that Trump was a “mentally deranged dotard.”

