Trump took time to brag about how great things were going with negotiations with North Korea over their nuclear program, but no one on his favorite morning program mentioned the recent news that their nuclear test site collapsed: Chinese geologists say North Korea nuclear test site collapsed, may explain end of program:
A study by Chinese geologists shows the mountain above North Korea’s main nuclear test site has collapsed under the stress of the explosions, rendering it unsafe for further testing and necessitating monitoring for any leaking radiation.
The findings by the scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China may shed new light on North Korean President Kim Jong Un’s announcement that his country was ceasing its testing program.
Nuclear explosions release enormous amounts of heat and energy, and the North’s largest test in September was believed early on to have rendered the site in northeastern North Korea unstable.
The data in the latest Chinese study was collected following the most powerful of the North’s six nuclear device tests on Sept. 3 that is believed to have triggered four earthquakes over the following weeks. The yield of the bomb was estimated at more than 100 kilotons of TNT, at least 10 times stronger than anything the North had tested previously. (The bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 had a yield of about 15 kilotons.)
During his already infamous rambling thirty minutes on Fox & Friends, Trump was asked about Mike Pompeo's recent meeting with Kim Jung-un, and Trump, of course, took credit for being a great negotiator. (Please note: they haven't actually formally agreed to anything yet.) Trump took the opportunity to attack the Obama administration and "sleepy-eyed Chuck Todd," and pretended he hasn't given away anything by legitimizing Kim Jong-un on the world stage by agreeing to meet with him.
Trump couldn't stop himself from raging about Comey and CNN as well before they could get him to finish answering their questions:
KILMEADE: All right. But, Mr. President, you can argue — you can argue that the midterms are going to be decided on big things like a meeting that you're going to have one-one-one with Kim Jong Un. How much are you looking at the summit that starts tomorrow with South Korea to look at what you're going to be doing when you sit down with North Korea? And on top of that, we know this is confidential but can you give us any more information on the one-on-one that Mike Pompeo had with Kim Jong Un? A lot of people are hungry for some details.
TRUMP: Well, I can. First of all, we're doing very well with North Korea, and we'll see how it all comes out. Again, Brian, I'm not like Obama where you go in and you have a Kerry, who's the worst negotiator I've ever seen. He goes in for the Iran deal, he never leaves. He should've left. He should've just left. He would have — could have made a much better deal. But — so it could be that I walk out quickly — with respect, but it could be. It could be that maybe the meeting doesn’t even take place. Who knows? But I can tell you right now they want to meet. They wanted to go to the Olympics.
Look, it was very, very nasty with Little Rocket Man and with the buttons — and, you know, my button's bigger than — everybody said this guy's going to get us into nuclear war. Let me tell you. The nuclear war would have happened if you had weak people. We had weak people. This should have been settled long before I came into office. This is a much different ballgame than if they did it five or 10 or 20 years ago. This is a much more dangerous ballgame now. But I will tell you it's going very well. Mike Pompeo did go there. He wasn’t supposed to meet with Kim Jong Un but he did. He — you know, they arranged, actually while he was there, to say hello. We have incredible pictures of the two talking and meeting which I'd love to release. If we can I'll do that, actually. It's not a bad idea.
KILMEADE: So it was just a hello, Mr. President?
TRUMP: No, it was more than a hello. They got along. They were with each other for, you know, more than an hour.
DOOCY: Right.
TRUMP: They spoke, and he also spoke with his counterparts in North Korea. They had a great meeting. He then left. It was very, very secret — very, very quiet. They had a great meeting — he left. And, you know, when I watch — liked I watched sleepy eyes Chuck Todd the other day saying why is the president giving up so much and North Korea's giving up nothing? This was at the beginning of “Meet The Press,” which, I mean, this guy shouldn’t even be —
KILMEADE: Right.
TRUMP: — on the show. So I said to myself, well, wait a minute, I'm seeing it just the opposite. I haven't given up anything. I haven't even talked about it. I haven't given up anything. We're not giving up much.
EARHARDT: When are you going to meet with him?
TRUMP: I'm not giving up much. They've given up denuclearization, testing, research. We're going to close different sites. And I'm saying to myself, wait a minute. All of these things he's given up, and we haven't even really that much asked them because we would have asked them but they gave it before I even asked. So I have this guy, fake news — he's on television saying why am I giving up something? I never gave up anything. The people have to understand how dishonest the news is. And in all fairness to Fox, you guys don’t always treat me great but you treat me fairly. You know, it's not like Fox is perfect for me. They're not — they're tough but at least it's fair. When you look at some of the others — you look at like a CNN, they'll have a council of seven people and of the seven people every one of them is against me. I'm saying, where do we — where do they even find these people? I appreciate the —
KILMEADE: I'm not your doctor, Mr. President, but I would — I would recommend you watch less of them.
TRUMP: I don’t watch them at all. I watched last night.
DOOCY: Well, that makes it easy.
TRUMP: I'll tell you what. I watched leaking, lying Comey last night and I did — I did — I hated to do it. You know, one of the reasons people say you're still looking good, Mr. President. How do you do it? Well, one of the things I've been able to do, which is something I never thought I had the ability — I would always watch when I was — now, frankly, I don’t have time for two reasons. There's too much and I don’t have time. But I would watch — whether it's good or bad, I'd always watch. I have an ability — I don’t watch NBC anymore. They're as bad as CNN. I don’t — and by the way, I made them a fortune with “The Apprentice.” Think of that one. I made them — and I did 19 episodes (ph).
DOOCY: Your alma mater.
TRUMP: No, but I made them a fortune.
DOOCY: Right.
TRUMP: You would think that these guys would treat me great. I made them a fortune. So they treat me horribly —
DOOCY: Okay.
TRUMP: — and they treat me falsely. But just one thing. I don’t watch things now. I can put it out of my mind and I never, ever thought that that would be possible. And you know what that does? It keeps you on the ball. It keeps you — you keep your sanity and it works very well. But last night I did watch —
EARHARDT: Mr. President, I have one question.
TRUMP: I did watch a liar-leaker and his performance, by the way, was horrible. And I will say this. Anderson Cooper was surprisingly tough, and he did a good job.
DOOCY: He did.
EARHARDT: Mr. President, real quickly, have you decided on a date to meet with Kim Jong Un?
TRUMP: We have a decision to be made. We have three or four dates and that includes —
KILMEADE: Right.
TRUMP: — locations. We have five locations —
KILMEADE: Great.
TRUMP: — and that will all be narrowed down. I can only say this. When I came into office people thought we were going into nuclear war, okay, and now they're saying wow —
KILMEADE: Right.
TRUMP: — it looks like that's going to be taken care.DOOCY: Mr. President —
TRUMP: I think we're doing very well. Let's see what happens.
