Did Donald Trump really say he wants the American people to “sit up at attention” for him the way North Koreans do for Kim Jong-un?
Short answer: no. No, he didn’t.
Maybe you've heard the rumors by now: the media is losing their minds over claims that Trump said he wanted the American public to stand at attention for him like Kim's people do. Which, in the liberal media's mind, only confirms their theory that Trump's looking to usher us all into a shiny new dictatorship wherein he's the head honcho and we all take turns picking dog crap off his shoes.
Here’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Trump made the (admittedly not so great) joke about his staff – not the American people – during an interview with Fox & Friends Friday morning. Here’s the clip.
TRUMP on Kim Jong Un (note the final two sentences): "He's the head of a country, and I mean he's the strong head. Don't let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same." (via FOX) pic.twitter.com/ed9AMRl9ny
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 15, 2018
Notice that gesture there, right at the end? He’s pointing to his staff. They were off to the side, just out of the camera shot.
Trump later said in an impromptu press briefing on the White House lawn that he was only kidding, accusing the media of not understanding sarcasm. (Then again, they also didn't understand the difference between calling gangbangers "animals" and insulting the entire immigrant community, so hey.)
Now, did Trump make an admittedly bad joke about a brutal dictator? Yeah. Has he lavished way too much praise on a guy who's starved and tortured countless numbers of his own people to death? Definitely.
But did he say he wanted the entirety of the American people to bow before him? No.
And what’s even sadder is the fact that the media showed more outrage over a tasteless, off-the-cuff pun than reports that top FBI agents conspired to derail Trump’s campaign and called Trump voters “poor to middle class, uneducated, lazy POS,” all while working on investigations both into Hillary and Trump, as well as James Comey’s use of a private email account to conduct government business while investigating Hillary for doing the exact same thing.
Forgive me if I consider that to be a greater threat to our democracy than a crappy joke.