North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is beginning to “respect” the U.S., President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.

Speaking to supporters at a campaign-style rally in Phoenix, Arizona, the President sought to juxtapose his administration’s tougher approach with his predecessors.

“You see what’s going on in North Korea? Who knows?” Trump said. “Kim Jong Un, I respect the fact that, I believe, he is starting to respect us.”

Echoing comments made by his Secretary of State earlier in the day, in which Rex Tillerson saidthat North Korea had exercised restraint by not testing missiles in August, the President suggested that