By Bo Erickson<\/p>\n
DENTON, Texas, Oct 1 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump has talked a lot about wanting to meet Kim Jong Un again but so far \u200chis entreaties to the North Korean leader have gone unanswered. Can former NBA \u200cstar Dennis Rodman help prompt a rebound in their relationship?<\/p>\n
Rodman was in Trump’s entourage on Thursday as the president spoke at \u200ba truck factory in Denton, Texas, before heading to a campaign rally at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma. No reason was given for Rodman’s presence, but he is an alumnus of the Durant school.<\/p>\n
The inclusion of Rodman in Trump’s traveling party comes as the president tries \u200cto arrange a face-to-face meeting \u2060with Kim, and Rodman is known to be friendly with the head of the nuclear-armed nation.<\/p>\n
“When I wanted to get to know Kim Jong Un \u2060when we’re having a problem \u2014 Kim Jong Un and I get along \u2014 but the one who knew him best was Dennis Rodman,” Trump told workers at the Peterbilt factory in Denton.<\/p>\n
Nearby sat Rodman \u200bon \u200bthe back of a semi-truck. The basketball hall-of-famer \u200bwore a black Chicago Bulls hat, \u200cstudded black jeans, and a shirt depicting himself lifting a trophy.<\/p>\n
As Rodman subsequently hopped into the presidential motorcade for the ride north to Oklahoma, he told Reuters that he hoped to speak with Trump about “life.”<\/p>\n
Asked if he was going to North Korea any time soon, the basketball legend responded: “If you buy the ticket.”<\/p>\n
In his first term, Trump had three high-profile meetings with \u200cKim, including a visit to the Korean Demilitarized Zone, \u200bbut has not staged a similar event since returning \u200bto the presidency.<\/p>\n
Trump has called Kim a \u200bfriend that he can work with, despite North Korea’s belligerent rhetoric and embrace \u200cof nuclear arms.<\/p>\n
The president is scheduled to \u200battend the annual Asia-Pacific \u200bEconomic Cooperation forum next month in China, and could theoretically add a meeting with Kim as part of that trip.<\/p>\n
“He likes Trump, doesn’t like a lot of other \u200bpeople,” Trump told reporters \u200con Tuesday at the White House. “I’m about the only person in the entire world \u200bthat he likes, and I like him.”<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Bo Erickson and Steve \u200bHolland; Editing by Sergio Non and Lincoln Feast.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Bo Erickson DENTON, Texas, Oct 1 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump has talked a lot about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-453861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}