When former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had winked at her during their Singapore summit in 2018, US President Donald Trump joked she would need to “go to North Korea to take one for the team.”
Trump apparently lapped the moment up, telling Sanders that “Kim Jong-un hit on you! He did! He fucking hit on you.”
Sanders revealed the exchange in her new book, Speaking for Myself which has been obtained by a number of major media outlets.
But this book is not a take-down of Trump, as others who have served with him have now penned. Rather Sanders remains a loyal Trump follower and her book, Speaking for Myself, aims to offer a “tell-all guide” of working as one of his staffers. The book also discusses her experiences as a new mother and how she may run for governor of Arkansas, according to the New York Times.
She writes about her former boss positively and glowingly throughout the book.
Still, according to released extracts, Sanders does share snippers of Trump’s misogynistic behaviour.
On the meeting with Trump and Kim Jong-un, she recalls the men talking about sport, including women’s soccer. She writes that she looked up at one point to see “Kim staring at me”. She made eye contact and Kim who she writes then appeared to “wink at me”. She was stunned, looked down and returned to taking notes.
It was later on in the presidential limousine that Sanders shared with Trump and his then Chief of Staff John Kelly that the North Korean leader had winked at her, the two men laughed and Trump responded: “Are you telling me Kim Jong-un hit on you!?”
“Well, Sarah, that settles it,” Trump said. “You’re going to North Korea and taking one for the team! Your husband and kids will miss you, but you’ll be a hero to your country.”
Sanders said that’s not what she meant, and when he continued she requested Trump to, “Sir, please stop.”