Celebrity Apprentice star Dennis Rodman and Donald Trump
President Trump is reportedly hoping Dennis Rodman can help him get back in touch with Kim Jong Un. There’s just one problem — according to journalist Josh Rogin, that ship may have already sailed, thanks to an incident involving Rodman getting violently sick in a North Korean hotel hallway back in 2014.
The New York Post reports that Trump has invited the basketball Hall of Famer to a rally in Durant, Oklahoma — Rodman’s hometown, where he went to college. Sources close to the situation say the invite isn’t just about nostalgia. Trump apparently wants to use Rodman to reopen a dialogue with Kim once the midterms wrap up in November. He’d mentioned back in August that he wanted to sit down with Kim again before the year was out.
That plan might not survive contact with reality, though.
Rogin, a foreign policy columnist for The Washington Post, says Rodman’s usefulness as a back-channel to Pyongyang ended years ago. The reason, according to Rogin: Rodman reportedly got “super drunk” during one of his trips and defecated on the floor of his hotel room. Not exactly the kind of thing that keeps a friendship alive, even one built on basketball and mutual weirdness.
Rogin dug up an old report detailing the incident, which allegedly took place at the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang. Rodman reportedly got sick and relieved himself in a hallway during the visit — a moment that, according to the report, effectively ended his personal relationship with Kim. North Korean officials apparently told Rodman he wouldn’t be welcome back until he completed an alcohol treatment program.
Here’s how Rogin put it on social media:
Kim Jong Un broke off his friendship with Rodman after the last visit where Rodman allegedly got super drunk and allegedly defacated on the hotel room floor. He can’t help Trump with North Korean diplomacy anymore.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) September 30, 2026
Rodman isn’t exactly a stranger to North Korea. He made at least five separate trips to Pyongyang between 2013 and 2017, and at one point called Kim a “friend for life” — a phrase that, in hindsight, may not have aged well. His connection to Trump goes back even further, to a 2009 appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice.
Whatever role Rodman played in the past, it clearly mattered to Trump. During his first term, between 2016 and 2020, Trump and Kim actually met face-to-face three times — first in Singapore in June 2018, then in Hanoi in February 2019, and finally at the DMZ (demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea) later that same year.
Whether any of that diplomatic momentum can be rebuilt — with or without Rodman’s help — remains to be seen. If Rogin’s reporting holds up, Trump may need to find a different messenger this time around.
