Here's the Mini-Movie Trump's Team Made for Kim
Film, produced in the style of a movie trailer, describes two alternative futures for the U.S. and North Korea.
(Bloomberg) -- There’s a single credit at the beginning of the movie President Donald Trump made for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un: “A Destiny Pictures Production.”
“Seven billion people inhabit planet Earth,” an unidentified male narrator intones. “Of those alive today, only a small number will leave a lasting impact. And only the very few will make decisions or take actions that renew their homeland and change the course of history.”
The film was first screened in Korean for bewildered journalists waiting for the president’s news conference at the Capella Hotel in Singapore after his meetings with Kim. There was no explanation of what they were watching. Was it made by the North Koreans? South Korea? Singapore? A version narrated in American-accented English followed.
“We had it made up,” Trump told reporters afterward, answering that question. “I hope you liked it. I thought it was good, I thought it was interesting enough to show, one in English and one in Korean. And we had it made up -- I showed it to him today, actually during the meeting towards the end of the meeting, and I think he loved it.”
Trump said the movie was shown to Kim and his aides on an iPad and “a cassette.”
Missile in Reverse
The film, produced in the style of a movie trailer, describes two alternative futures for the U.S. and North Korea. “One of moving back,” the narrator says, over images of warfare and ruin, “or one of moving forward,” followed by images of a North Korean missile launch in reverse, the famously dark country lighting up at night, and skyscrapers under construction.
“A story about a special moment in time. When a man is presented with one chance that may never be repeated,” the narrator says, over video of a basketball player dunking the ball. (Kim is reputedly a serious fan of the sport.)
“What will he choose? To show vision and leadership? Or not?”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to questions about the film, from who narrated it to who made it. Hours later, Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in an email that “the video was created by the NSC to help the President demonstrate the benefits of complete denuclearization, and a vision of a peaceful and prosperous Korean Peninsula.”
On Twitter Tuesday afternoon, Trump introduced the video as “‘A Story of Opportunity’ that I shared with Kim Jong Un at the #SingaporeSummit.”
“I showed it to you because that’s the future, I mean, that could very well be the future,” Trump said.
Kim’s reaction is unknown.
--With assistance from Jennifer Epstein and Nick Turner.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Wayne in Wash at awayne3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, John Harney, Larry Liebert
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