In the firestorm around family separations at the US–Mexico border, President Donald Trump keeps trying to bring the conversation back to North Korea, demanding credit for his accomplishments at last week’s summit in Singapore that he says are not being recognized.



The problem is that he's touting results that have yet to happen, getting ahead of the Pentagon and leaving military officials to clean up his comments.

In an abrupt change of topic from his televised remarks on immigration at a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Trump praised his “tremendous success in North Korea” at the historic meeting with Kim Jong Un.

“It will be a total denuclearization, which is already starting taking place,” he said, adding that it was beginning "immediately" — contradicting his defense secretary, who was sitting next to him at the same table. Less than 24 hours earlier, Jim Mattis had told reporters at the Pentagon that he had not seen any indication that North Korea had done anything to dismantle its weapons program or move toward denuclearization.

“No, I’m not aware of that,” Mattis had said, adding that “obviously it’s the very front end of the process. The detailed negotiations have not begun ... I wouldn’t expect that at this point.”

On Wednesday night, Trump also brought up the concessions he said he'd exacted from North Korea at a campaign rally in Duluth, Minnesota, declaring that the remains of 200 US service members killed in the Korean War had been repatriated to the US.

“We got back our great fallen heroes, the remains — in fact, today already 200 have been sent back,” Trump announced to the more than 8,000 supporters at the rally and thousands more who watched on television.

Trump’s claim reportedly baffled US officials in South Korea, who could not confirm whether such a transfer had taken place.