President Donald Trump is facing a backlash over his decision to scale back joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, with several Democratic lawmakers accusing him of abandoning America’s allies.
Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the decision “insane” and said it sends a message that “America’s commitments are negotiable.”
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“China and Russia are watching how easily this president abandons America’s allies, and we will remember that the next time he tests us,” Reid said in a statement Monday.
President Trump announced Sunday that he has ordered the Pentagon to “significantly scale back” joint training with the South Korean military.
He suggested the decision was based on South Korea’s “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s refusal to participate in the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.
President Trump said on his platform “Truth Social”, “I recently asked the president of South Korea if he wanted to participate in the denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and he said, “No thanks!””
The US president often positions war with Iran as a push for denuclearization, but the Iranian government maintains that it does not possess nuclear weapons.
President Trump reiterated Monday that he is angry with South Korea for refusing to get involved in the war with Iran.
“We can’t go around defending all these countries, especially if they don’t help us,” the US president told reporters.
The military exercises with South Korea are part of a decades-long defense partnership between the two countries, including a 1953 mutual defense treaty that effectively placed Seoul under Washington’s security umbrella.
In a fact sheet, the U.S. State Department describes the strategic partnership with South Korea as “the cornerstone of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
Democratic Sen. Andy Kim accused President Trump of ignoring that partnership.
“Decisions regarding joint exercises need to be made jointly and should not be announced unilaterally via social media,” Kim wrote to X.
“I will continue to urge the administration to strengthen our security, economic, trade, and technology relationships, all of which benefit the American people and the broader Indo-Pacific region.”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said President Trump’s decision was “dangerous” to regional stability.
“So the US, who wants to be an authoritarian ruler, has decided to abandon South Korea’s democracy and implement North Korea’s authoritarian rule, which he so admires?” Jayapal wrote in a social media post.
The new policy comes as the United States seeks to move away from its focus on the Asia-Pacific region, informally known as the “pivot to Asia,” amid strategic competition with China.
President Trump’s national security strategy last year called for shifting U.S. foreign policy resources to the Western Hemisphere, and a war with Iran would further strain America’s military and diplomatic capacity.
Trump met with North Korea’s Kim three times during his first term in 2018 and 2019, amid escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea.
Although the U.S. president praised his relationship with Kim after the summit, the meeting did not lead to any diplomatic breakthroughs or advance the U.S. policy goal of denuclearizing North Korea.
North Korea also continues to conduct missile tests, including a launch earlier this month, in defiance of the United States and its allies.
President Trump on Monday denied reports that Kim had not responded to diplomatic overtures.
“Kim Jong Un has always treated me with great respect…I understand him. He understands me,” Trump said.
The reduction in military exercises with South Korea prompted rare Republican criticism of President Trump’s policies.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis argued that the decision would allow North Korea to step up its support for Russian President Vladimir Putin during its war with Ukraine.
“South Korea has been a strong military ally with superior military capabilities for more than 70 years,” Tillis wrote in X.
“Reducing joint exercises with South Korea would mean releasing thousands of North Korean troops to support President Putin’s systematic kidnapping, torture, rape, and murder of innocent Ukrainian citizens.”
