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'Deplorable' brings laughs to Trump, Moon meeting

Posted September. 23, 2017 07:22,   

Updated September. 23, 2017 07:41

한국어

President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump had a bilateral meeting with on Thursday (local time) and Moon’s using the word “deplorable” became a topic at the meeting.

In the opening statement of the meeting, Moon said, “North Korea has continued to make provocations, and this is extremely deplorable. This has angered both me and our people.” An interpreter used the word “deplorable” and Trump said, “I’m happy you used the word ‘deplorable.’”

The reason why Trump reacted to this was because the word greatly affected his winning at last year’s presidential election. During the campaign, Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton called Trump’s supporters, who were mostly of white working-class voters, as a “basket of deplorables” at a rally. That galvanized much of Trump’s base who had not decided to support him for his rough talks. Clinton later apologized for using the word after backlash. Hillary Clinton wrote in her new memoir, “I regret handling Trump a political gift with my ‘deplorables’ comment.”

“I was very interested in that word. ‘Deplorable’ is very lucky word for me and many millions of my supporters,” Trump told Moon. “I promise, I did not tell him to use that word.” Many people in the meeting room laughed at his comment.



Keun-Hyung Yoo noel@donga.com