Dennis Rodman Joins Kim and Kanye, Tears Up as He Praises Trump
Rather remarkably to me and other Trump-watchers, President Donald Trump has slowly but surely built up a celebrity following, particularly from some unlikely quarters. And they don’t come more unlikely than Dennis Rodman.
Yes, Rodman appeared on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” and has gone on record as supporting the president in the past, but his appearance on CNN Monday night proved that he’s definitely a Trump die-hard — if a rather outré one.
Rodman appeared on Chris Cuomo’s show from Singapore, where he’d traveled to root on two of his most unlikely friends — the president and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, whom he’s visited in the past in Pyongyang.
Sporting a MAGA cap (and, it must be mentioned, a T-shirt repping PotCoin.com, a cannabis-centric cryptocurrency that sponsored Rodman’s trip and subsequently saw its value soar), Rodman said he had high hopes for the meeting and was moved to tears over death threats he received for his visits to North Korea.
Here’s the full interview:
During the interview, Rodman urged President Trump to put his “heart on the table” when it came to the summit.
“Donald Trump is going to do a great job and try and reach out and make sure that our hands — our hands are always open,” Rodman said.
“Let’s make this happen,” he added. “If Trump can pull this off, more power to him.”
Dennis Rodman's advice to US President Trump: Go into the meeting with Kim Jong Un with your “heart on the table,” and focus on the future https://t.co/0A3J2NkWqy pic.twitter.com/HFFL5w0E17
— CNN (@CNN) June 12, 2018
Also, in a clip that I think will no doubt find its way into a few viral videos, Rodman discussed the hardship he’d encountered after his trips to North Korea:
This is the most lit timeline
We got Dennis Rodman discussing North Korean foreign policy while crying live on CNN pic.twitter.com/6SII9clbjx
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) June 12, 2018
For some reason I can’t quite place, I’m reminded of Oscar Wilde’s epigram on the maudlin element in “The Old Curiosity Shop” by Charles Dickens: “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.” Don’t quite know why.
Regardless of what you think about Rodman’s appearance on CNN — I think everyone pretty much knows what the guy is about at this point, after all — it’s yet another sign that the president draws support from unusual parts of the celebrity world, at least for a Republican president.
After all, first there was Kanye West and his wife Kim Kardashian (who, in all fairness, still doesn’t quite support the president, but was certainly willing to engage him). I don’t quite remember many celebrities like Rodman (and certainly fewer African-American celebrities) willing to come out for George W. Bush or his father. For someone liberals and the media love to paint as a rabid racist, this is actually kind of big news, particularly given that neither Kanye nor Dennis Rodman are exactly known as prototype Republican material.
Now, for better or worse, I don’t think Dennis Rodman is exactly an expert in geopolitics, the same way that I don’t think most celebrities are. That being said, the man has visited North Korea and knows Trump, so when he says, “Donald Trump should take a lot of credit for this. He went out the box and made this happen,” I suppose it has a bit of authority behind it.
No matter how you feel, either about Rodman’s demeanor or his state visits to the North Korean regime, there’s no denying from this interview that this is someone who feels strongly that President Trump can work this out. Again, take that for what it’s worth, but it’s still an interesting viewpoint.
And hey, if you’re not terribly interested in what he had to say, at least there’s that crying scene.
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