President Donald Trump has claimed the leader of North Korea used a derogatory term to describe former President Joe Biden’s mental fitness — which Trump himself has spent years mocking.
During a lengthy White House press conference Monday, Trump griped that numerous allied nations, including South Korea, have failed to assist the U.S. in its war against Iran.
“We have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well as you know,” the president told reporters.
“He said very nice things about me,” Trump said of the North Korean autocrat. “He used to call Joe Biden a mentally r******* person…Joe Biden, he said he’s a mentally r******* person. He was so nasty to Joe Biden it was terrible. But to me he likes Trump.”
Kim, who became the country’s supreme leader in 2011, and other senior North Korean officials have spent years lobbing insults at U.S. politicians during years of tensions.
In 2014, the country’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Ri Tong Il, referred to the U.S. as “a mentally r******* patient.”
In 2023, the supreme leader’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, lashed out at Biden over his warning that North Korean nuclear aggression would bring about the end of its regime. She described the former president as senile, but warned that her brother’s government would not dismiss Biden’s words as a “nonsensical remark from the person in his dotage.”
Even though Trump touted his warm relationship with Kim, he was not spared the North Korean leader’s scathing criticism. During Trump’s first term in office, the autocrat derided him as a “dotard,” a “frightened dog” and a “gangster fond of playing with fire.”
Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to meet with Kim in 2018. He met with him on two other occasions, while also boasting of “love letters” he received from the North Korean leader.
However, their talks about denuclearizing the Korean peninsula proved unsuccessful, and the country has conducted multiple missile tests in recent years. The latest test took place in late March, as the country attempts to create an arsenal capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, state media reported.
Despite this, Trump told reporters: “You notice how nice things are with North Korea. It’s very nice.”
Trump’s new comments on Biden are just the latest in a long string of personal attacks on the 83-year-old former president’s mental health. Trump, 79, has accused Biden of suffering from “serious cognitive decline.” During a presidential debate in 2024, he claimed Biden “doesn’t even know what he’s saying.”
Biden withdrew from the White House race in July 2024 amid mounting concerns about his physical and mental health.
At the same time, Trump has routinely trumpeted his own mental prowess, claiming during a March Cabinet meeting that he’s the only president to have taken a cognitive exam.
“But I aced it. I got them all right,” Trump claimed.
