WASHINGTON — Dennis Rodman is worming his way back into the spotlight.
The Basketball and WWE Hall of Famer is expected to join President Trump on a midterm campaign trip to the bad boy’s college town later this week — as Trump considers more engagement with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
Rodman, who traveled to North Korea at least five times between 2013 and 2017, is scheduled to take part in a campaign event in Durant, Okla., where he attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University in the mid-1980s, sources say.
“After the midterms, Trump wants to refocus again on North Korea and start talking about Kim Jong Un,” one source close to Rodman and familiar with White House travel plans told The Post.
“Dennis believes he’s the ambassador of goodwill between North Korea and the United States. As Trump ponders what to do next, he’s been soliciting ideas and one of those key people he’s talking to is Dennis.”
Neither the White House nor reps for Rodman responded to The Post’s request for comment.
Trump’s busy campaign travel is subject to last-minute changes and it’s unclear if Rodman would speak on stage alongside the president in Oklahoma.
A five-time NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls, Rodman has been acclaimed as one of the greatest rebounders in basketball history, only for his off-court antics to overshadow his career.
Before becoming an amateur diplomat, Rodman notoriously wore a wedding dress to promote his 1996 autobiography “Bad As I Wanna Be” and was suspended 11 games for kicking a courtside photographer during a game.
Kim Jong Un, believed to be in his early 40s, is known to be a huge basketball fan, having closely followed the Bulls dynasty while attending boarding school in Switzerland, and Rodman has described the bloodthirsty tyrant as a “friend for life.”
The former power forward also has a longstanding relationship with Trump, dating back to Rodman’s appearance on the second season of “The Celebrity Apprentice” in 2009.
Trump told reporters last month that “I will be” meeting with Kim later this year, but Pyongyang has been cool to the idea, warning that any attempt to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons would be pointless.
The president is expected to visit China and possibly the Philippines in mid-November for the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conferences — leading to speculation that he might make a stopover to see Kim.
Rodman, the zany, 6-foot-7 ex-baller, became unlikely pals with Kim when he first visited the Hermit Kingdom in 2013 for a “basketball democracy tour” organized by Vice magazine. The Post broke the newsthat the ex-NBA star would be in Singapore for Trump’s first summit with the North Korean dictator.
Trump and Kim met three times during the US president’s first term — including the 2018 summit in Singaporeand another in Vietnam in 2019, followed by a handshake meeting at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea — but they have yet to meet since Trump returned to office last year.
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