Trump wishes we would act more like the people of North Korea.

President Donald Trump on Friday defended his warm praise of Kim Jong Un, saying his newfound affinity for the North Korean dictator was making Americans safer.

At the same time, Trump expressed esteem for the forced deference North Koreans show for their leader and joked he wished “my people” would do the same.

Well you can say he “joked” but we all know he means it. He wants universal groveling adoration, and nothing less will satisfy.

Asked why he’s warmed to Kim, Trump insisted he was defusing a nuclear standoff.

“I don’t want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family,” he told reporters during an impromptu question-and-answer session at the White House.

“I want to have a good relationship with North Korea. I want to have a good relationship with many other countries,” Trump said. “We had great chemistry. He gave us a lot.”

Wait. If the explanation is “cozy up to them so that they won’t throw nukes at us” then why did he pull the US out of the Iran deal?

The remarks, which came three days after Trump met Kim in Singapore for an unprecedented and friendly summit, are likely to do little to allay concerns that Trump has shown too much regard for a brutal despot, one responsible for the death of at least one American and of countless North Koreans.

Pressed on that record, Trump demurred.

“I can’t speak to that,” he said. “I can only speak to the fact that we signed an incredible agreement.”

He can’t speak to that??? Why the fuck not? He feels no inhibitions about speaking to anything he feels like speaking to, so why can’t he speak to the realities of Kim’s despotism?

Since returning from his summit with Kim, Trump has referred to Kim as “funny,” “smart,” “very talented,” and someone who “loves his people.”

He’s also spoken with barely contained awe about the displays of reverence North Koreans are obligated to show toward their supreme leader.

“He’s the head of the country,” Trump said of Kim Friday during a live interview on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” “And I mean he’s the strong head. Don’t let anyone think anything different.”

“He speaks and his people sit up at attention,” the President added. “I want my people to do the same.”

Ah, well maybe that’s why – he can’t speak to it (i.e. acknowledge and condemn it) because he thinks it’s a good thing. He can’t speak to it because he’s too busy envying it.

Kim has had 340 people executed in his first five years. (Counting his brother poisoned in the airport? Not clear.)

In June 2016, a top education official was executed by firing squad after he exercised a “bad attitude” at the country’s Supreme People’s Assembly. Kim’s defense minister was executed in May 2015 with an anti-aircraft gun at a Pyongyang military school, before an audience.

Trump would love to be able to do things like that.

(And I’m not joking or deliberately exaggerating. It doesn’t take much for people to love doing that. A situation in which it’s possible coupled with enough self-regard and brutality: done.)

His flippant talk on the subject is yet another disgrace we’ll never live down.