WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump faced immediate blowback on Friday for his assertion that his predecessor in the Oval Office, Barack Obama, was on the brink of starting "a big war" with North Korea.
Trump made the claim during a rambling news conference on Friday, in which he declared a national emergency to free up federal money for his controversial border wall, suggested he would delay a deadline for hiking tariffs on China, and touted his success in negotiations with North Korea.
Trump said Obama told him North Korea's nuclear weapons program presented the greatest threat to the United States during a 2016 meeting in the White House just after Trump won the presidential election.
"He told me he was so close to starting a big war with North Korea," Trump recounted.
"It is absolutely ridiculous to suggest that the Obama administration was considering anything like that," said Michael Fuchs, who served as Obama's deputy assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs. He said Trump was simply "lying" about that exchange.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/02/15/ex-obama-aides-refute-trumps-claim-big-war-north-korea/2880839002/
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