President Donald Trump knows "exactly what he's doing" in his cancellation of a summit with Kim Jong Un and his hardline stance may actually help the U.S. and North Korea bury the hatchet, veteran political commentator Michael Reagan tells Newsmax TV.
And Reagan, the son of Ronald Reagan, added Trump's move is not unlike how his father walked out of a nuclear weapons summit with Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.
"[The Trump-Kim submit] very well could happen. He's playing hardball the way he plays hardball … I think Donald Trump knows exactly what he's doing," Reagan, the son of Ronald Reagan told Miranda Khan and John Cardillo on Newsmax's "America Talks Live."
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"Sometimes you need to do what you need to do to accomplish what you want to accomplish. Donald Trump is doing what he believes is the right thing to do and we should all be applauding the president."
On Thursday, Trump abruptly canceled his summit with the North Korean strongman, blaming "tremendous anger and open hostility" by Pyongyang. Earlier, a top North Korean Foreign Ministry official called Vice President Mike Pence a "political dummy" and said it was up to the Americans whether they would "meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown."
Reagan says Trump's action reminded him of his father exiting a meeting with Gorbachev in Reykjavík, Iceland, during the Cold War.
"When my father walked into Reykjavík and then you had Gorbachev telling him he was only going to sign onto the agreement if he gave up Star Wars, the SDI [Strategic Defense Initiative], that was a no-go for my father and my father walked away from it," Reagan recalled.
"What happened? A year later, Gorbachev signs [the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty]. A few years after that the Berlin Wall comes down. Sometimes you have to be tough to win."
Reagan is the author of "Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan," written with Jim Denney and published by Humanix Books.
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