Former President Trump offered his congratulations to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un as North Korea was appointed to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) executive board. The question is, why? Why does he offer kind words to a brutal Communist dictator when he is running to be president? Other Republican primary candidates are reacting.

Despite the North Korean regime’s near-constant violation of the United Nations charter, North Korea was seated on the WHO’s executive board. Dr. Jong Min Pak, the official who leads the North Korean Ministry of Public Health, will play a role in the WHO’s agenda and policy development. Other member states, like South Korea, immediately expressed outrage over the appointment. So did Republican candidates as they campaigned in Iowa this weekend.

Trump used Truth Social to congratulate Kim Jong-un. He said, “Congratulations to Kim Jung Un” in the ‘truth’. He misspelled Kim’s name. Trump has a weird interest in being friends with Kim Jong-un that is hard to understand. Just a few days ago, he said he would soon be best friends with Kim Jong-un again. It’s an odd claim but Trump seems to think it’s the move to make. He certainly approaches brutal dictators differently than how traditional politicians do.

On Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst’s annual “Roast and Ride” gathering took place. Most of the Republican primary candidates were there to deliver speeches and press the flesh. Trump skipped the event. The candidates weighed in.

From DeSantis:

“I was surprised to see that,” DeSantis, who launched his presidential bid late last month, said of Trump’s congratulatory message at the event. “I think Kim Jong Un is a murderous dictator. They just imprisoned for life a family, including an infant, which is just outrageous. The World Health Organization is a bankrupt organization, like Kim Jong Un’s bad but then joining that. We need to be getting out of that and rejecting the WHO lockdown treaty, not congratulating [anyone] about being involved in the WHO.”

From Mike Pence:

“Whether it’s my former running mate or anyone else, no one should be praising the dictator in North Korea — or praising the leader of Russia, who has launched an unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine,” former Vice President Mike Pence, who is set to launch his 2024 presidential bid on Wednesday, said in an interview with Fox News on Saturday. “This is a time when we ought to make it clear to the world that we stand for freedom and we stand with those who stand for freedom.”

From Nikki Haley, who has a unique perspective from her time as United States ambassador to the United Nations for two years during the Trump administration:

“You don’t congratulate a thug. I mean, let’s keep in mind, this thug has threatened America, has threatened our allies, over and over again.”

“This is not something to play with. I mean, he’s a terrible individual,” she added. “He’s terrible to his people, he’s terrible to our allies in the world, and I don’t think he deserves congratulations.”

From the former governor of Arkansas, a Never-Trump Republican:

“Kim Jong-Un, the tyrant dictator in North Korea should not be praised by Donald Trump for a leadership role in the World Health Organization,” Hutchinson wrote. “We sanction leaders who oppress their people. We do not elevate them on the world stage.”

Appointments such as this one are why so many democracy-loving people reject the United Nations. Elevating dictators into positions of power does not advance the cause of freedom for the world’s population. It’s like the Human Rights Council which puts some of the most brutal dictators on its governing board. It’s absurd.

North Korea is a bad actor and Kim Jong-un is mentally unstable. He starves his own people while he and his family and inner circle live like kings. He takes American hostages and the case of Otto Warmbier is a good example of why Kim Jong-un must never be accepted by the civilized world. Trump doesn’t seem to agree with that opinion. He met with Kim three times during his term in office. Trump was the first sitting U.S. president to step on North Korean soil. Trump often referred to the “love letters” he exchanged with Kim. There were also public feuds with threats of the use of nuclear weapons. With Trump, it’s complicated, whereas with previous presidents it has been a black-and-white issue.

It would have been a good opportunity for Trump to criticize the WHO and its handling of the pandemic. There is true evil in the world and it shouldn’t be appeased.