On its face this seems like a rather remarkable statement from President Trump. However, below the surface the geopolitical ramifications are perhaps not as surprising.
Today, President Trump notes the administration is shifting its position of military support toward South Korea.
PRESIDENT TRUMP – 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. 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. 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!
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.” – President DONALD J. TRUMP
Implied directly within the last paragraph was President Trump resetting the relationship based on South Korea’s unwillingness to support the U.S. goals toward Iran.
In essence, if South Korea is unwilling to support the U.S. military operation and strategic objective, then the U.S. will -as previously announced toward NATO- reset the nature of the administration outlook. As a consequence, South Korea will no longer have the direct military assistance traditionally in place from the USA.
President Trump had previously hoped the relationship between North and South Korea would be healed and slowly the divisions between the Korean people would soften. This was a direct effort during the first Trump administration.
The U.S. retreating from South Korea changes the dynamic considerably, especially when you overlay the Chinese perspective toward the region and Beijing’s heavy hand operation inside the DPRK. The U.S. pulling back from South Korea is not something Chairman Xi would disfavor; in fact, it is something Xi would welcome.
This pushes Japan into the solid position as the U.S. number one ally in Asia. Obviously, South Korea becomes less valued.
There are increased indications that China is potentially moving to pull Taiwan closer into their control. The recent ‘Han Kuang exercise’ within Taiwan in preparation for direct Chinese takeover was met with a dismissive attitude by Beijing. However, it is also a factual reality that if China would make a military move against Taiwan the U.S. is not in a strong enough position to stop it.
There is more to this U.S-South Korea shift than appears on the surface.
Professional Republicans are going to go bananas.
[All these worlds are yours, except Japan – Attempt no landings there?]
Professional Republicans are going to go bananas
And the down side is ?????
I love the smell of angry RINOs in the morning
Lol
It’s a new fragrance called toilet de Rino
😎
Considering that South Korea is the main player in the revitalization of US shipyards and a builder of new warships, there is definitely more to this than meets the eye.
Trump is probably angling for money for his ugly family. Do you think he cares at all about America? Looks at the facts.
When you are clueless
and oozing with ignorance
no one cares what you think or say.
Step out of the way for common sense.
MAGNA
It’s obvious Democrats don’t or there wouldn’t be millions of illegals running around in our country, many of them killing our citizens, raping our women, and voting in our elections, while they fight to keep allowing illegals to do it.
“Ugly Family” tells us all we need to know about you.
Next time try harder to sway the conversation your way.
Another mindless idiot.
Much more… Looks like South Korea may have been involved with 2020 election in US with the machines. And also with their own recent elections. Previous president being treated like Biden treated Trump after 2020. CCP now having lot of influence.
I hadn’t heard that.
“The U.S. retreating from South Korea . . .” Retreating? I beg to differ.
Personally I’m done with 1-sided relationships, so I’m all for it. With all the fraud that is continually uncovered in seemingly everything associated with US taxpayer dollars, one has to wonder what was the internal grift and how much di S. Korea depend upon our “contribution” to free up funds for their favorite unfunded budget items?
Hah, HAL 9000 predicted this 20 years ago.
Nice job Sundance… The HAL 9000 possessed by the transformed Dave Bowman / A.C. Clarke reference.
Didn’t expect that.
Panic sells better than Peace.
The war pigs are getting restless.
Good, I spent 13 months on the DMZ in Korea in the 1990’s. Time to bring out kids home, bring them home from Europe, the Middle East and Egypt. Only Japan if it makes sense. That’s our forward operating bases in the Far East.
My brother, sons, and grandsons have seen Korea up close – from the 1950s until today. It’s ridiculous and has been ridiculous for a long time.
I’m pretty sure whoever succeeds POTUS Trump is going to allow a lot of his best work to be neglected or eliminated, but there’s no way they’re going to get all of it.
It’s good to think about RINOs losing their bananas. Kind of like the freshening that follows a long, gentle rain. Or a hurricane. Either works.
As with your family, so did my army surgeon father, saving or trying to save the men badly injured in that war.
He never ever spoke of what he saw, and I knew enough to not ask. My mother said he came back an entirely different man, which as I’ve grown in understanding made sense of the loving but distant father he was.
“I am sick of war. But its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.”
~William Tecumseh Sherman
Subic Bay is gearing back up.
Taiwan is the apple of Xi’s eye. Xi has his own problems. His inner circle has been reduced from 7 to 2 and the overall miltary morale is disintegrating. He may have no choice but to move quickly on Taiwan before America solidifies it’s options.
<His inner circle has been reduced from 7 to 2…>
Making it impossible for them to even form a circle 🙂
They cannot even do the wave 🙂
When things heat up…
They can do the microwave 🙂
They used to cook up strategy, now they reheat whatever Xi wants.
President Trump is brilliant we
might need a couple of ladders to play on this chessboard.
Our amazing President “bookin and cookin”
Tried singing that to the tune of “25 or 6 to 4” Nope… didn’t work. 😉
Try Radar Love. It fits better….. Microwave Love.
I must be missing something.
The Norks are supporting Iran so if the US reduces support to S. Korea, then the Norks will reduce support to Iran?
I think the Norks will stay as a barb in the side of the US until China tells them otherwise.
Gee, I wonder how Taiwan feels about the denuclearization of Iran.
Anyone have a guess?
Huh? Taiwan has no deployable naval assets. It has a limited air force and is totally preoccupied by its neighbor….china.
China has a weakness that Taiwan could exploit if attacked, the 3 Gorges Dam. Break the dam and China’s industrial heart, Wuhan, Nanjing, Shanghai would be flooded and close to 50 million people effected.
And the earth would return to its natural rotation
https://sigmaearth.com/nasa-confirms-chinas-three-gorges-dam-is-affecting-earths-rotation-raising-environmental-concerns/
I thought the dam had collapsed? I saw it on the internet.
We may be close to not needing either South Korea or Taiwan for semiconductors, with domestic US and Japanese production meeting our demand even with the AI infrastructure push. So if SK/TAIWAN won’t support US, what good are they?
As for the morally bankrupt professional Republicans who have been chanting the free trade/no tariff mantra for decades as the American Middle Class was all but destroyed, there’s a new international trading structure being put in place to replace globalism, aka inverted fascism. Once this Hamiltonian American System has been fully reinstated, the professional Republicans will be given new narratives by their corporate bosses. They will do a complete 180 and deny they ever promoted anything else. “I never had sexual relations with that system, globalism.”
“I never had sexual relations with that system, globalism.”
You are my new favorite poster. 👍.
(Aside from Betsy of course)
Elon is personally taking care of the reshoring of the chip industry back to the USA… With Intel playing a major role in in the new chip factory in Texas…. What an impact Elon is having on our country…
It is not a question of just making chips but making the right chips.
The internet talk bemoans all the water that has to be used and the electricity required to manufacture the chips and then the question becomes are those chips going into data centers which stirs up another hornet nest.
Ok, then. Let’s just put the data centers in space. Oh, wait……
“Professional Republicans are going to go bananas.”
They better be careful – we do not want them slipping and falling on the peels. Broken hips can be life threatening to seniors……………
‘go bananas’
aka
ape shit
The first President in My Lifetime that was truly America First. MAGA.
The pieces are being arranged on the board the breathing has slowed and the constriction has increased bet Rocket man has changed his mind about supplying the troglodytes
Xi fell into a bucket of botox.
His face is nearly always expressionless.
Inscrutable.
And the Japanese seem to really like Taiwan.
Because the southernmost Japanese islands are within eyes reach of Taiwan.
So…Does this set up South and North Korea as somewhat sitting ducks for China to attempt to take over also? I get that China pretty much controls North Korea. Sounds like a bit of a nuclear power struggle between all 3. Sorry, I don’t get what this might mean. Help… 😉
More Good News.
We’ll see…
The Russians fought the Japanese for Korea just before WW I. Don’t sleep on Putin wanting his piece as well. Very interesting.
Trump is only good at two things. Making people angry and grifting money.
He lacks every quality that makes a successful leader.
And you morons eat it up.
Someone left the screen door open.
Again? Dammit Jim.
Flattery will get you nowhere.
Speaking of Morons….project much?
I guess this means that you will not be staying for dinner! Adios!
“Professional Republicans are going to go bananas.”
You can say that again.
South Korea has essentially been taken by China. Their former President, the one who attempted to declare martial law in order to expose election stealing there in SK, has now been imprisoned by the Chinese aligned government there for his pursuit of truth. Very similar situation to what’s happening to Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.
Very tenuous times on Earth. The hour is late for western civilization (and the USA, obviously), and things look very bad at the moment.
Yes, we have been ignoring S. Korea, distracted by many other things. Time will tell.
You’ve been studying the situation. Very dangerous. Samsung is the prize for the CCP
He’ll die in prison, you know. This agent of Israel.
Shut up, commie moron!
Looks like good strategic move to me. Focus energy and resources on vital allies and areas. South Korea expendable. Japan is strong allie and economic power.
In other words, everybody knows Trump is term limited and they know our only way to make MAGA stick long-term would be to fixing our rigged election process which is not going to happen apparently.
Deleted
The South Korean communists stole the last election. Their new leader and his cadre are very pro Communist China.
The GOAT
HE’S GOING TO NUKE IRAN
Good. And Ukraine will be next.
South Korea has become the new North Korea
If S. Korea changes it’s Iranian stance to be in line with the U.S. then things are subject to change.
The US stepping taking a step back from South Korea will allow Kim Jong Un to step back from Iran and Russia, potentially reducing tensions with both of those countries, easing the way toward peace deals.
“However, it is also a factual reality that if China would make a military move against Taiwan the U.S. is not in a strong enough position to stop it”
Two things:
1: Sounds a lot like an invitation to China.
2: Would any such American weakness have anything to do with the Iran quagmire ?
South Korea’s own military remains sufficient to defend the country. The need for US support as well as the current US military posture in Korea is no longer needed. Pull the Americans out and bring them home.