Trump to South Korea: Drop Dead

It was only a matter of time before Donald Trump falling “in love” with North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un had real world consequences for America and South Korea. So it has come to pass like a kidney stone (Tom Nichols, The Atlantic).

Early Sunday evening, Trump instructed the Defense Department to “substantially reduce” its participation in an annual joint military exercise with the South Koreans. He did this, he said in a post on Truth Social, in part because such activities are expensive, but worse, they are insulting to his friends in North Korea, a country that has been “unthreatening and respectful” while he’s been in office. (Trump seems unconcerned about the dozens of nuclear weapons Pyongyang is pointing at U.S. and South Korean forces—many of them developed on his watch. Just a reminder: There are roughly 28,500 American troops currently stationed in South Korea, some just a few miles from the DMZ.)

Why would the Russian Imperial Viceroy for the American Territories be concerned about the Chinese Imperial Viceroy for Northern Korea pointing nukes at our troops? Kim hasn’t threatened him, which is all that matters to Trump.

South Korea, on the other hand…

More to the point, he complained that the South Koreans have not helped him defeat 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!’”

When Trump makes the effort to say something is “unrelated” to his actions (and then adds a coy question mark) it usually means it is completely related—and probably his central motivation.

Never mind South Korea’s alliance with the US, including sending troops to support us in Iraq. Never mind its democracy.1 What matters are Trump’s personal feelings and nothing more.

We will pay the price for this, even as we are still counting the cost.

The Chinese and the Russians and the North Koreans are certain to draw the appropriate lessons from this deranged policy. They have been shown, yet again, that when Trump fails, he hurts those he feels safe hurting. Already, North Korea is dispatching missiles and thousands of soldiers to aid Russia in its war on Ukraine. If a conflict should break out in the Pacific or on the Korean peninsula, or if the war in Europe spreads farther west, the world’s dictators might well count on Trump to focus American wrath not on the enemies of the free world, but on the nations that have always pledged to stand side by side with the United States in a mutual defense of freedom.

In other words, Trump’s temper tantrum could cost us Taiwan, or the Baltics, or even South Korea itself. Even worse, he’s made it clear he doesn’t care, because in each case, the rapacious tyrant has flattered him into personal bliss. He smites our allows and it smitten with our enemies.

We can only hope the other shoe stays in the air until 2029. That’s not how I would bet, though.