In 1999, Donald Trump said that if he were president, he would deal with North Korea immediately instead of waiting for them to develop nuclear capabilities.
Trump promised Tuesday that he would respond to North Korea with “fire and fury” if they continued to threaten the United States.
In 1999, Trump delivered the same strong response to the dictatorial regime, explaining that if negotiations failed, he might be in favor of a preemptive attack.
“First, I would negotiate [before resorting to a preemptive strike],” he said. “I would negotiate like crazy. I would make sure we tried to get the best deal possible.”
“These people in three or four years are going to have nuclear weapons,” then-businessman Trump continued. “Wouldn’t you be better solving this really potentially unbelievable threat–the biggest problem this world has is nuclear proliferation.”
“If that negotiation doesn’t work, you better solve the problem now than solve it later,” he asserted. “And you know it, and every politician knows it, and nobody wants to talk about it.”
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