Trump Had To Explain Elton John ‘Rocket Man’ Reference To Kim Jong Un, Insisted It Was a ‘Compliment,’ Per Mike Pompeo

AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File

Donald Trump had to explain his “Little Rocket Man” reference to Kim Jong Un because the North Korean dictator did not understand what Trump insisted was a “compliment,” according to Mike Pompeo.

In the book Never Give An Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, Pompeo revealed Trump asked Jong-un if he knew who Elton John was while they had lunch in 2018. The excerpt from the book was highlighted by Business Insider.

Trump referred to Jong Un as “Little Rocket Man” multiple times in 2017 and Pompeo reportedly explained that he meant the bizarre nickname as a “compliment.” The mocking nickname of course stemmed from John’s hit song Rocket Man.

“Trump said it was a great song, and he intended the reference as a compliment,” Pompeo recalled.

Jong Un responded by saying he was okay with being referred to as “Rocket Man,” but he did not appreciate the “Little” bit.

“‘Rocket man,’ OK. ‘Little,’ not OK,” he said.

Little may have been an appropriate description though, according to Pompeo.

“I watched from the meeting room and noticed immediately that my North Korean friend wore platform shoes that left him about a foot shorter than President Trump. At somewhere around five feet five, Chairman Kim could not afford to give an inch — literally,” the former secretary of state wrote.

Trump claimed in 2021 that he gave Jong Un a cassette of the Elton John song. He also declared it was a compliment then.

“I called you Rocket Man — that was great — because I could see you, I could envisage you, sitting like you sit on a horse, on a saddle, sitting on a rocket flying over Japan,” he recalled to a Florida audience.

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