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.
“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.
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.
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. 🙂
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/
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.
“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.
“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.