In 1994, Carter became the first U.S. president ever to visit North Korea when he met with Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea and grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong Un. Together, the two developed a bilateral, “step-by-step plan to get to the point of peace and work toward denuclearization,’’ Khanna said.

Carter, now 94, no longer travels but told Khanna that he would go to North Korea if the Trump administration wanted his assistance. Khanna noted that Carter is “perhaps the only person in the nation” who had direct contact and negotiations with Kim’s grandfather, a revered figure in North Korea. And with that “weight of history,” he added, Carter may be in a unique position to assist Trump in his nuclear talks with the current North Korean dictator after the two leaders left a recent summit in Vietnam with no agreement on how to move forward.