There is a special kind of madness that descends upon an administration when it begins to treat its enemies with more courtesy than its allies. Unfortunately, we’ve seen this kind of thing over and over again from Trump.
There is a special kind of madness that descends upon an administration when it begins to treat its enemies with more courtesy than its allies. Unfortunately, we’ve seen this kind of thing over and over again from Trump. Over the weekend, that madness arrived again in the form of a Truth Social post (shocker) from Trump, who casually announced that he had ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with S. Korea, a treaty ally of seven decades. His reasoning? The drills are too expensive, too provocative, and worst of all, they offend the delicate sensibilities of Kim Jong Un, a man who Trump assures us has been “unthreatening and respectful” for as long as he has occupied the Oval Office.
Let’s pause to appreciate the absurdity: N. Korea, a hereditary dictatorship that has spent the past month test-firing ballistic missiles and threatening “stern steps” against the United States and its allies, is described by the American president as “unthreatening.” To make matters even more interesting, Pyongyang’s state media just called the upcoming Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” of “more serious provocative nature and dangerousness than last year.”
A more “normal” and appropriate response from an American president should have been to reaffirm the alliance, demonstrate resolve, and remind the Kim regime that 28,500 U.S. troops stand ready to defend the south. Instead, Trump took dictation from Pyongyang and declared the exercises “inappropriate and hostile,” adopting North Korea’s own propaganda as his talking points.
But Trump wasn’t done yet. He also tied the decision to a separate grievance: South Korea had declined his request to join the American effort to denuclearize Iran. “While somewhat unrelated (?),” he wrote. “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!’”
So, he finally said the quiet part out loud (he usually does). He’s just throwing a childish tantrum—again—because S. Korea wouldn’t help dig him out of the mess he got himself into. So, having plunged us into a reckless war with Iran that has depleted munition and strained military resources, Trump retaliates against our allies by weakening the very security architecture that protects us all.
The message to the world could not be clearer: loyalty to Donald Trump is the only currency that matters, and all the alliances that have preserved relative peace for more than half century is collateral damage in his personal vendettas.
We can only imagine the response in S. Korea. Seoul has watched Trump embrace Kim Jong Un with the warmth of an old friend—posting photos of their 2019 meetings and declaring that the two “get along GREAT”—while treating the democratically elected leader of a treaty ally as a disobedient subordinate.
Meanwhile, the actual threat from N. Korea is not theoretical. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Pyongyang is using Russia’s war in Ukraine as a live-fire laboratory, testing and refining ballistic missiles that will one day threaten Seoul, Tokyo, and Manila.
Every N. Korean missile fired at Ukraine is a missile whose accuracy, range, and reliability are being validated for future use against American allies in the Pacific. And Trump’s response to this accelerating menace is to cancel the live-fire exercises and the prepositioning drills that keep 18,000 South Korean troops and their American counterparts ready to fight.
This is not the first time Trump has tried this maneuver. In 2018, following his Singapore summit with Kim, he called the joint exercises “provocative” and “tremendously expensive” and suspended them unilaterally.
He got nothing in return then, and he will get nothing now. North Korea did not denuclearize in 2018; it expanded its arsenal. It is not denuclearizing in 2026; it is proliferating missiles to Russia and perfecting the weapons that point at American troops. The only difference is that this time, Trump’s frustration is more naked, more personal, more dangerous. He is losing a war in Iran, our military is overstretched, our munitions are depleted, and rather than accept responsibility, he’s lashing out at any ally he knows can’t strike back.
The Chinese, the Russians, and the North Koreans are taking notes. They have learned that when Donald Trump fails, he does not punish his enemies; he punishes his friends. He does not stand by allies who have bled alongside Americans in foreign wars; he abandons them for the flattery of dictators. And he does not understand—probably can’t understand—that the credibility of American power rests on the commitments we make to nations that have staked their security on our word.
South Korea did not say “No thanks” to America. It said no to being dragged into a Middle Eastern conflict that this president started and can’t finish. For that act of reasonable judgment, it has been demoted in Trump’s affections below a regime that starves its own people, executes its officials with anti-aircraft guns, and threatens nuclear holocaust on a weekly basis. If there has ever been a more damning indictment of American leadership, I can’t think of it.
Send this story to anyone — or drop the embed into a blog post, Substack, Notion page. Every play sends rev-share back to nickanderson.
We’ve simplified responses to 👍 / 👎. Past comments are archived but no longer visible.