The White House released a movie trailer-like video that President Trump played for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their summit that characterizes the two leaders as standing at the precipice of the future, poised to make a critical decision.
“Featuring President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un in a meeting to remake history. To shine in the sun,” the narrator intones in the video setting out the stakes for their summit. “One moment. One choice. What if? The future remains to be written.”
The four-minute video produced by “Destiny Pictures” contains images of Trump, a former reality TV star, and Kim making speeches as images of bullet trains, gleaming modern cities, and electric towers stretching into the distance appear on the screen.
“The past doesn’t have to be the future. Out of the darkness can come the light, and the light of hope can burn bright,” the narrator intones.
The video came as a surprise to Mark Castaldo, the owner of Destiny Pictures in Los Angeles, who said he had nothing to do with its making.
“Nobody contacted me,” he told the Post, referring to the White House.
He said he stayed up late to watch the summit in Singapore and woke up to his movie production company in the news.
“I went to bed and woke up to hundreds of news outlets calling me,” he said. “It’s all about this video. It’s crazy.”
The White House hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
The video sets the stage for what hangs in the balance as the two leaders got together.
Showing the sun rising over the Earth, the video continues.
“A story of opportunity, a new story, a new beginning. One of peace,” the man’s voice says as a basketball player is seen dunking a ball. “Two men, two leaders, one destiny. A story about a special moment in time when a man is presented with one chance that may never be repeated. What will he choose? To show vision and leadership — or not?”
The narrator then says there can only be two results: “one of moving back” that is accompanied by a jet fighter taking off from an aircraft carrier, “or one of moving forward” that shows lights blazing across a map of North Korea, cranes working on skyscrapers and high-rise buildings along a dazzling beach.
“It comes down to a choice, on this day, in this time, at this moment,” the narrator declares.
Trump showed the video – which had versions in English and Korean – to Kim on his iPad at their summit and it was also played for the assembled media before the president’s news conference in Singapore.
“We had it made up. I showed it to him today, actually during the meeting, toward the end of the meeting and I think he loved it,” Trump said during the news conference.
“Although I tell you what, he looked at that tape, he looked at that iPad, and I’m telling you they really enjoyed it, I believe,” Trump added.