The United States would be at war with North Korea if Donald Trump was not president, the commander in chief said.
Trump spoke with the New York Post Monday and indicated that without him in the Oval Office, tensions between the U.S. and North Korea would have boiled over.
"Remember everyone said I'd be in a war within the first 24 hours [in office] because of a personality type? They don't understand me," Trump said.
"You look at North Korea — where's the war? You would have been in a war in North Korea if I didn't get elected, you would be in a war right now."
Trump has met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on two occasions as the U.S. tries to persuade the reclusive nation to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Kim was recently absent from the public for nearly three weeks and rumors about his death swirled, but according to state media he appeared at a fertilizer factory on May 1.
During the Post interview, Trump also tore into the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and kickstart a war that has cost the U.S. trillions of dollars.
"You look at where we are with the troops, the footprint is much different. We're down to 8,000 in Afghanistan, down to 4,000 in Iraq, we're down to zero in Syria. It's a much different deal, much different than people thought," Trump said.
"That doesn't mean we won't fight it if we have to, but we spent $8 trillion dollars in one of the worst decisions ever made to go into the Middle East, probably the worst decision made in the history of our country, going into the Middle East. Millions of people were killed on both sides.
"We fought it as a police force. We were like traffic cops. We didn't fight the war the way you fight a war to win. I would rate that as the worst decision made in the history of our country."
The comments came in the wake of former President George W. Bush's plea over the weekend for Americans to come together, regardless of party, during the coronavirus pandemic.
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