--- title: All the Times Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump Swapped Insults description: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump have been hurtling insults at each other this past week. It's not the first time canonical: https://time.com/4953283/kim-jong-un-donald-trump-insults/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-22T16:27:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T11:16:19.418Z article:section: Politics og:title: All the Times Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump Swapped Insults og:description: The two world leaders have exchanged a variety of creative insults og:url: https://time.com/4953283/kim-jong-un-donald-trump-insults/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9766b2fdc550f857/6988d93222fb8519fee22589/170810_donald-trump-kim-jong-un.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: 170810_Donald Trump-Kim Jong Un og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: All the Times Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump Swapped Insults twitter:description: The two world leaders have exchanged a variety of creative insults twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9766b2fdc550f857/6988d93222fb8519fee22589/170810_donald-trump-kim-jong-un.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here Are All the Times Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump Insulted Each Other > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7c8fb709-86fd-4953-9117-ba2dbf7f66a5&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Sep 22, 2017 4:27 PM UTC  A man watches a television screen showing U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017. A man watches a television screen showing U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017. Ahn Young-joon—AP by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Sep 22, 2017 4:27 PM UTC North Korean leader [Kim Jong Un](http://time.com/4952750/kim-jong-un-donald-trump-dotard-north-korea/) and [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4932427/donald-trump-north-korea-options/) have been hurtling insults left, right and center at each other this past week. The U.S. President kicked off this recent round of insult exchanges when he referred to Kim as a “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission,” during his [speech at the U.N. General Assembly](http://time.com/4947877/the-u-n-speech-showed-president-trumps-zero-sum-views/) on Tuesday. A few days later, Kim released a unprecedented statement in response, in which he called Trump [a “dotard”](http://time.com/4952750/kim-jong-un-donald-trump-dotard-north-korea/) — a person in a state of “senile decay marked by decline of mental poise and alertness” — and “mentally deranged.” Trump threw the next punch; he took to Twitter to call the North Korean leader “obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/911175246853664768) But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the two world leaders exchanging a variety of creative insults. On July 4 of this year, Trump took to Twitter to insult Kim, in response to [North Korea’s claim](http://time.com/4844403/north-korea-icbm-kim-jong-un-test/) that it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time. “Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?” Trump tweeted, adding: “Hard to believe that South Korea and Japan will put up with this much longer. Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!” In August, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency described Trump as a leader who frequently tweets “weird articles of his ego-driven thoughts” and “spouts rubbish” to give his assistants a hard time, the [Associated Press](https://www.apnews.com/117d6b9047db49c7bf5d4a5572aa0864) reported at the time. The KCNA also criticized South Korea’s Defense Minister Song Young-moo for “pinning hope on that mad guy,” referring to Trump. 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