Kim’s mental fitness a worry, not Trump’s: White House

The White House on Wednesday defended Donald Trump’s tweet about the size of his nuclear button, saying Americans should be concerned about the North Korean leader’s mental fitness, not their president’s.

On Tuesday, Trump responded to a New Year’s Day speech in which North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned he had a nuclear button on his desk by saying that his nuclear button “is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

The tweet provoked strong criticism, especially from Trump’s Democratic opponents, and former vice president Joe Biden called it dangerously cavalier.

Asked whether Americans should be concerned about the president’s mental fitness after he appeared to be speaking so lightly about nuclear threats, White House spokeswoman Sara Sanders told a regular news briefing:

“The president and the people of this country should be concerned about the mental fitness of the leader of North Korea.

“He’s made repeated threats, he’s tested missiles time and time again for years, and this is a president who’s not going to cower down and who’s not going to be weak and is going to make sure that he does what he’s promised to do and that is stand up and protect the American people.”

Trump and Kim have exchanged repeated insults in a crisis over North Korea’s nuclear missile program.