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
😎
smells like rancid bananas
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.
The only “ugly” thing I see here is an unprovoked attack on Trump’s family. Completely unacceptable.
ugh
Are you an idiot, or do you just play one on tv?
Deuteronomy
18:9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
18:12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Physically ugly, intellectually ugly, or some combination of the two?
They are hardly physically ugly people, IMO. Intellectually? I can’t see that either.
They appear to be fairly capable in the business world. Trump did well on his TV show.
But I will grant you that none of them are perfect. Nor am I, and I suspect that goes for pretty much everyone.
Yes, I do think he cares about America.
Get back to me when you’ve accomplished as much as Trump has during your life.
Thank you for reminding us. What a clown you are.
Hunter, you’re not welcome here
Another insane Biden Boomer mediocrity posting their poisoned brain droppings.
Begone.
You must love beating your head against the wall.
Get lost
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.
YES ..to retreating from SK… it’s about the time…same goes from .. non NATO/EU country UKRAINE…..
Re “Retreating? I beg to differ.”
Most words have more than one meaning. Look up the word “retreat” in the dictionary and perhaps you will find the one Sundance is using. Hint: It has zero to do with raising a white flag or surrendering anything…
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.
Just how many war slops do they want.
We should not give them all that they want; we should give them war slops that they choke on.
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
A farm boy from New Zealand long dreamed of coming to America, for the opportunities she presented. As he started his merchant career, he made many trips to the States and then….he received his “opportunity” after accepting an all expense paid vacation, to Korea, for the US of A. And lived to tell about some of it.
Thank God, Aggie…
My husband had a childhood friend who immigrated to the US from Britain.
He was drafted and sent to Vietnam.
He did not live to tell about it.
🏴🏴🏴
My dad, with the 11th Airborne, my kid at camp Humphries as military Intel linguistics, Korea needs to be put to bed
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.
There are many ways that Taiwan could support the effort in Iran, without deploying warships to the Straight. And, for all we know, they may already be providing assistance.
And, if they are preoccupied with China now, imagine their predicament if they also get “the South Korea treatment.”
Where do you think chips come from?
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.
Exactly! and the Yellowstone Volcano is Long Overdue to blow up the Western US. I saw it several times on the internet.
Not long overdue. Just do.
Gotta be true if you 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……
“inverted Fascism”….I like that…its a perfect description….
I stole that term from Sundance. I’ve been calling it 21st Century Fascism, but inverted fascism is descriptively more accurate.
What good is Taiwan? To start, TSM is building foundries and research facilities ($265 BN investment) in Arizona. When completed, with make ~30% of total TSM chip volume in 2nm and beyond. The first of 3 foundries is already in volume production. Source – Grok.
“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
No its not….
Not if one is a member of Congress…they all seem to recover.
I was not sure if I should have added the “/sarc”
These Congress Critters seem to hang around until they are well past their “best by” date. Some insist on hanging onto that Congressional or Senate seat until they reach the expiration date. That happened in SCOTUS recently as well.
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.
Well his eyes are slits so who is able to tell if he is alive at all?
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 have suitably rebuked him/her/whatever, up thread.
Watering the plants…. IMHO, they should be ignored, eventually they’ll dry up.
Sure have seen a lot of new plants get brought into this treehouse.
I guess this means that you will not be staying for dinner! Adios!
Ad Rem! Clean up on aisle 47.
Under commenting guidelines, #12 and #13 speak to manners matter and no personal attacks.
Name calling is very poor etiquette.
We respect free speech and your comment about “morons” may fall under that and your own “opinion”, but it is truly rude and unacceptable to our host and visitors..
Again,
“Professional Republicans are going to go bananas.”
You can say that again.
I could offer some eggs or lettuce?
Texas can assist with that. Especially with the eggs.
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.
Not really though. Hyundai and Hanwha are active in buying and expanding the US shipyards. Some new ships are coming out of SK until the US side can get capacity in place.
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!
Let IT speak. Its pronoun is it.
We need to hear more childish opinions from trantifa on this site. At least before they all meet their demise by their own hand, or the filthy islamists kill them.
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
“fixing our rigged election process which is not going to happen apparently.”
With your crystal ball to see into the future, might I suggest turning your attention to the Powerball and Mega Millions lottery games.
This negativity, along with failing to acknowledge all the successes, has become wearisome to continue reading.
When your President, please show us how it’s done…
Thus the casual intransigence of the Rs on PDJT’s secure-election legislation.
By the way, have you ever heard any Republicans say publicly why they don’t like this legislation? Even more, have you heard or read any conservative influence agent (other than Sundance) even raise the question?
We will just suspend the constitution and give President Trump four more years.
They did not have a problem suspending it to promote their covid crap.
It is our turn.
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.
Is that you MTG?
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.
I would say the likelihood of President Lee doing this is unimaginable.
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.
…very wishfull thing … Kim -rocket man- ..love his toys and they are even better than Iranian rockets…capable vaporize NEWSCUM NEST LA….. soo VSGPDJT be better get along with Kim… btw he going sent 50,000 soldiers to finish Z……
“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 ?
Something to C onside on the proverbial chess board:
C gets a lot of of oil from ME,
and someone new has a lever on what flows in / out.
So, mutual C operation would be a move to
C onsider.
[ and there are the prior plandemic miss
C operation levers.. ]
p.s.
all of prelim talk and preactions are in the genuine interest of America 1st…the improvement of honest lives in the U.S.
imho
Love thy neighbors…
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.
I imagine that the fact that the current SK President (I believe) was installed with fraud … <ahem> it doesn’t just happen in the U.S. or Brazil … and is aligned with the PRC/CCP has much to do with this U.S. pullback.
next pullback will be from GULF STATES……I would love to hear tantrum rinos/dinos/mic…they been not capable defend those countries since 02/28/26…….saaaad
Ground report. Started getting a lot of “Taiwan is preparing for invasion!” alongside the usual pro-Ukraine garbage propaganda in my Youtube sidebar out of nowhere a few weeks ago. And before the peanut gallery chimes in that this is algorithm-driven, I always hit the “Not Interested” button when this garbage shows up. Weeks of flagging it as “Not Interested” and it’s still being forced into my sidebar anyways.
switch to more rational…moonofalabama.org…whatdoesitmean.com….Hal Turner Radio Show…..
Sorcha Faal was the original Alex Jones before losing that crown, and Hal Turner is a literal FBI informant. They’re about as useful as CNN.
Forgot to mention that the next “Call of Duty” game—release date October 2026—is about a North Korean invasion of South Korea. The franchise has always been heavy on the military propaganda. The 2013 release featured a night-time raid on Venezuela to capture the Venezuelan dictator.
Trump is very wise and honest. He’s an even better president than he promised to be.
…uhhh…
another 5 dots of data could factor in…
– 3 carrier groups have operations occurring ME
– whereas I x has a lot of mis$ influenCes in the U.S., someone is planning 1 trip to the U.S. in Sept ( so a peace pipe signal is sent I x buddy NK ala reduced mil exercises with SB )
– the DMZ has been in place since the Korean War. How much is SK financing that endeavor ( considering the C influences in SK )?
Sometimes a wake up C all helps the
C omplacent?
Yes, there are things to talk about
and
yes the ‘talks’
can and do have an influence on U.S. domestic
well being.
p.s.
Some saw the C growth of influences in the U.S. with c-dem bran done team.
Some people do not C.
Everyone can learn, if they want to learn.
Imho
Love thy neighbors…
the s Koreans are showing their true colors… pinkos…
Can’t forget they recently had a massive election fraud coup crises in South Korea. They are being overthrown from within by election subversion, much like we are here in the US.
…lots …of SK presidents past 55-60 yrs ended up in jail/assassinated/ removed from office /removed by military coup…..and we support this kind of “democracy” past 70 + yrs…. not wander 50-65 % want to be reunited same as Germany 36 yrs ago……
Not sure what you’re saying. You saying there was no election subversion that recently happened, and 50-65% of South Koreans want communism?
Ha, ha. I just want to readdress this statement for what it really seems to say, although it is still a mangled mess to my brain.
So you say the election coup shouldn’t matter to anyone because the US supported all the stuff you said above.
That’s silly. Just because something may or may not have happened in the past that I was not aware of, will not make me indifferent to what I am aware of.
You also say because of what the US may or may not have supported in the past makes 50-65% of South Koreans just want to reunite with North Korea. So even though there was an election subversion, most really want it anyway. Because somehow that translates into reuniting with the North.
Hmmm. Ok. None of that actually makes any sense.
It could be that President Trump has plans for the Americas that require deploying Naval assets from South Korea to new areas of interest.
We are not in the room so we have no way of understanding the logistics involved and why.
South Korean elections have been compromised much like the US. They are being written off as a casualty of war
Excellent Mr. President, excellent….
Alliances cause major wars.
If England had not promised Poland full backing against Germany, the Poles would have been forced to sort out their border dispute with Germany, and no need for WWII.
The British Empire dragged all its colonies into the war and dragged the USA into the war.
Hitler foolishly signed a pact with Japan and declared war on the USA after Pearl Harbor.
Disengaging from NATO and alliances in the East is a benefit.
If I were Taiwan, I would have 100s of missiles on mobile launchers with one target: the Three Gorges Dam.
It holds back 39 to 42 billion cubic meters (about 39–42 billion tons) of water. It is a massive structure and may only have some holes put in it instead of destroying the entire structure. Taiwan should figure out how to destroy it.
Well, if the unit party professional Republicans are such a tough crowd, they could volunteer to go fight for South Korea, and the rest of the bunch could volunteer to go fight for Ukraine, especially Mike Pompeo, the tough guy/S
I read two messages. The first for Thune and the rest of the Uniparty
“Pass the Pentagon budget or we’ll be forced to cancel some of your donors’ favorite things, like war games with ‘allies,’ all over the world. ”
Second message for So Korea and Nato.
“Your unwillingness to help your own interests in Iran tells us a lot about you. Get yourself together and help out a little. We’re not going to keep paying your bills.”
I hope K-Dramas are not gonna go hating on the US!!
I’m with President Trump on these so called allies, we give them money they give that money to the MIC industries. We ask them to join use in making the world safer from the lunatics and they say NO. And if the lunatics attack them, they expect us to shed our blood for them. OK.
Trump is saying you want our weapons, you are going to pay for them out of your own pocket and if you are attacked use those weapons to defend yourselves. But first, find a way to get along with your neighbors so that does not happen. Its called love they neighbor.