JD Vance joked about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s weight during a rally speech in Detroit, Michigan on Tuesday as part of a bizarrely told anecdote meant to illustrate Donald Trump’s powers of diplomacy. Relating one of his “favorite Donald Trump moments,” the Ohio senator asked the crowd if they knew Kim. “He’s the leader of North Korea and, let’s be honest, Kim Jong Un hasn’t skipped many meals,” he quipped. He went on to recall a moment in 2018 when Trump met with Kim in Singapore and joked to photographers to make sure the pair looked “nice and handsome and thin.” (A clip of a camera’s Office-esque pan to the insulted North Korean leader quickly went viral.) Vance then explained that the episode showed, somehow, Trump’s willingness “to engage in diplomacy, engage in conversation.” The Republican vice presidential nominee has deployed the story—complete with the fat-shaming crack—at least once previously along the campaign trail in recent months, to more comprehensible effect. At an August stop in North Carolina, Vance remembered the Singapore incident, then added, “It means something to have a president who’s not afraid to go into hostile territories, tell a few jokes, and actually engage in diplomacy.” Guess something has since gotten lost in translation.
