Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump told her to go to North Korea and take 'one for the team' after Kim Jong Un winked at her

• President Donald Trump told Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former White House press secretary, to go to North Korea and take "one for the team" after Kim Jong Un appeared to wink at her, she said in a new memoir, according to The Guardian.
• Sanders said that during a summit between Trump and Kim in Singapore in 2018, "Kim nodded and appeared to wink at me."
• "Well, Sarah, that settles it. You're going to North Korea and taking one for the team!" Trump told her, Sanders said. "Your husband and kids will miss you, but you'll be a hero to your country!"
• Kim and Trump have since enjoyed a warm relationship, with Trump saying at a rally in September 2018 that they "fell in love."
• The veteran journalist Bob Woodward is set to release a book this month that says that Kim described his relationship with Trump as being out of a "fantasy film."

President Donald Trump told Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former White House press secretary, to go to North Korea and take one "for the team" after Kim Jong Un appeared to wink at her during a summit in 2018, she said in a new book.

In her memoir, a copy of which was obtained by The Guardian, Sanders described an incident at the summit in Singapore with Trump, Kim, and a collection of their aides.

She said in the book, set to be released next Tuesday, that during a session of talks, Kim "reluctantly" accepted a Tic Tac mint from Trump, who "dramatically blew into the air to reassure Kim it was just a breath mint" and not poison.

The pair then talked about sports, including women's soccer, at which point Sanders looked up "to notice Kim staring at me," she said, according to The Guardian.

"We made direct eye contact and Kim nodded and appeared to wink at me," she wrote. "I was stunned. I quickly looked down and continued taking notes."

She added: "All I could think was, 'What just happened? Surely Kim Jong Un did not just mark me!?'"

The former press secretary said that later, in the presidential limousine, she told Trump and John Kelly, who was then his chief of staff, about the incident.

"Kim Jong Un hit on you!" Trump said, according to Sanders. "He did! He f---ing hit on you!"

Sanders replied, "Sir, please stop."

"Well, Sarah, that settles it. You're going to North Korea and taking one for the team!" Trump told her, Sanders said. "Your husband and kids will miss you, but you'll be a hero to your country!"

Trump and Kelly then "howled with laughter," Sanders said.

Trump was initially hostile toward Kim, using a speech at the United Nations in 2017 to nickname him "Rocket Man" and threatening military action against North Korea if its government did not stop its nuclear-weapon development.

But the pair have since enjoyed a warm relationship, with both leaders praising each other extensively.

The Singapore summit was the first of their three meetings during Trump's presidency. They met again in February 2019 and then at the Demilitarized Zone in June 2019, when Trump became the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea.

Trump said at a rally in September 2018 that he and Kim "fell in love" and that the North Korean leader had written him "beautiful letters."

The veteran journalist Bob Woodward's second book on Trump, "Rage," due to be released on September 15, describes the content of the letters and says that Kim said his relationship with Trump was out of a "fantasy film."