President Trump has been sounding the alarm about North Korea’s nuclear capabilities and the real threat posed by “maniac” Kim Jong-un since the beginning of his campaign in 2015.

During a Republican presidential debate on Sept. 16, 2015, Trump was asked his opinion on the Iran nuclear deal brokered by Barack Obama. After briefly addressing the matter, he pivoted into issuing a stark warning about North Korea and the immediate danger they present with an erratic madman at the wheel.

“Nobody ever mentions North Korea, where you have this maniac sitting there, and he actually has nuclear weapons,” Trump said, while failed opponent Jeb Bush observed with a patronizing smile. “Somebody better start thinking about North Korea.”

“We’re talking about Iran – they’re bad actors, bad things are going to happen, but in the meantime you have somebody right now in North Korea who’s got nuclear weapons, and who is saying almost every other week, ‘I’m ready to use them,’ and we don’t even mention it.”

In a follow-up interview on his statements, Trump doubled-down on his assertions.

“I said last night – we’re talking about Iran, and in the meantime you have North Korea, where they actually have the nukes already made, and you have this maniac over there threatening them every two weeks that, ‘We’re going to use them on the United States and every place else,’ and nobody even talks about it, nobody mentions him,” Trump said. “He actually has the nukes – Iran does not.”

“It’s a terrible situation. We’re run by incompetent people.”

Tensions between the US and North Korea have reached a boiling and could escalate into nuclear war at any moment, as Pyongyang has threatened to attack the US territory of Guam, and Trump has promised “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if Kim makes a move.

President Trump tweeted about the rejuvenation of the US nuclear arsenal under his watch, and the message to North Korea could not be clearer.

“My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal,” Trump wrote this morning. “It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before.”

“Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!”

My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017

…Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson clarified the need for straightforward tough talk at this time, saying, “What the president is doing, is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong-un would understand, because he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language.”

Dan Lyman: Facebook | Twitter

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