Fox News guest credits Trump’s tweet about his nuclear button for Korean negotiations

North Korea agreed to the negotiations “hours after the United States and South Korea delayed a military exercise”

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Fox & Friends guest Jim Hanson praised President Donald Trump’s tweet that threatened to use a “Nuclear Button” to launch weapons at North Korea and credited it for forcing the North Korean government to use “a diplomatic hotline that hadn’t been used in two years” to negotiate with South Korea, adding, “I think that speaks for itself.” 

In fact, according to Reuters, North Korea agreed to official negotiations “hours after the United States and South Korea delayed a military exercise amid a standoff over the North’s nuclear and missile programs.” Furthermore, as The New York Times reported, Trump’s tweet “generated a mix of scorn and alarm among lawmakers, diplomats and national security experts who called it juvenile and frightening for a president handling a foreign policy challenge with world-wrecking consequences.” 

Hanson is perhaps best known for his time as the vice president of the Center for Security Policy, which the Southern Poverty Law Center deemed “a conspiracy-oriented mouthpiece for the growing anti-Muslim movement in the United States.” Hanson also regularly appears on Fox News to push Islamophobic misinformation, including talking with Fox’s Tucker Carlson about how “liberal guilt” is forcing Germany to atone for the Holocaust by tolerating refugee violence. From the January 5 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends:

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Jim, is this a good thing? Because you have a liberal leader of South Korea who came in wanting to distance himself from the United States and now he’s talking to North Korea. Are they trying to get between us or are they giving in?

JIM HANSON (PRESIDENT OF SECURITY STUDIES): I think you can look at the way this went down. Kim Jong Un makes a threat about nuclear weapons and a button on his desk, and President Trump did exactly what you do when you're dealing with a bully and a tyrant. He faced him down. He said, “That's a nice hermit kingdom you've got up there. It'd be a shame if it turned into radioactive rubble.” And look what happened. The North Koreans picked up a diplomatic hotline that hadn't been used in two years and called South Korea a couple hours later. I think that speaks for itself.