President Donald Trump has directed U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth to sharply curtail American participation in large-scale joint military exercises with South Korea, denouncing the drills as totally inappropriate and hostile toward North Korea.
According to WND, President Trump used his Truth Social platform to signal a major shift in posture toward the long-running war games on the Korean Peninsula. Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea, he wrote, underscoring his belief that personal diplomacy and strength, not perpetual saber-rattling, best serve U.S. interests.
He argued that the drills are a financial and strategic burden on American taxpayers, stating, These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful. In that context, he announced a concrete directive: Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!
President Trump also linked the issue to broader geopolitical questions, revealing a recent exchange with Seoul over Iran. While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, No thanks! Thank you for your attention to this matter, he wrote, highlighting what many conservatives see as the reluctance of U.S. allies to shoulder equal responsibility in global security efforts.
On Saturday, he reinforced his message by sharing a photograph of himself alongside Kim Jong Un, remarking, Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where were smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT! The post underscored his longstanding contention that firm but direct engagement with adversaries can reduce tensions without endless military escalation.
The reports noted that The 11 days of exercises involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats. U.S. and South Korean forces were expected to practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, and distribution of prepositioned military equipment, according to the U.S. military.
During his first term, President Trump repeatedly challenged the foreign-policy establishments attachment to such war games, calling them provocative. We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should, Trump told reporters in 2018, a stance consistent with a conservative preference for fiscal restraint, burden-sharing with allies, and diplomacy backed by American strength rather than open-ended military commitments.
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