Throughout Donald Trump’s first term, the president went to bizarre lengths to cozy up to North Korea, a longtime enemy of the United States, while alienating South Korea, a longtime U.S. ally. In 2019, the Republican took steps to cancel U.S. military exercises near the peninsula while echoing Pyongyang’s rhetoric, criticizing the exercises as “very provocative” and “inappropriate.”

After losing his 2020 re-election bid and preparing for a White House comeback, Trump’s belligerence toward Seoul by some measures managed to get worse. The Republican referred to South Korea as “an enemy” of the U.S. on matters of trade — despite the fact that his own administration struck a trade deal with South Korea — adding that he believed “it’s time we stop” helping our Korean allies.

The antagonistic attitude hasn’t improved. On Sunday afternoon, for reasons unknown, the American president published an odd message to his social media platform, which read in part:

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!

Trump went on to complain about South Korea not participating in his war with Iran (he labeled it “the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran”), which ostensibly shouldn’t even be necessary, given how often he’s declared victory in that conflict.

A day later, at an unrelated event in the Oval Office, Trump kept this going, telling reporters on Monday afternoon that he’d spoken to the North Korean dictator over the last 24 hours, before again complaining about our South Korean allies.

As part of the exchange, the Republican said he wants South Korea to pay $10 billion to cover the cost of the military exercises. (Trump made similar comments in 2019. Vipin Narang, an associate professor at MIT who follows the Korean peninsula, said at the time, “Nothing says ‘I love you’ like a shakedown.”)

With recent history in mind, it’s important to emphasize that we do not yet know for certain whether the president’s rhetoric reflects reality. Trump said he’d directed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the U.S. role in the military exercises, but he claims all sorts of things, many of which prove baseless. Indeed, the long-planned exercises began Monday as scheduled, and it remains unclear whether and how much the Republican’s post will affect the plans for the rest of the scheduled operations.

But if the online statement reflects reality in any meaningful way, it’s another regressive step for a White House that’s gone to breathtaking lengths to alienate U.S. allies. As The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols summarized, “Scaling back the exercise is, of course, an insane decision, which does nothing but hurt an ally, and tempt an adversary to think — correctly — that American leadership is feckless. … The Chinese and the Russians and the North Koreans are certain to draw the appropriate lessons from this deranged policy. They have been shown, yet again, that when Trump fails, he hurts those he feels safe hurting.”

Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, went further, accusing the president of “appeasement.”

Reed’s written statement added, “This is another inane, haphazard decision by President Trump and his chaotic administration. America’s alliances are built on trust and strength. When President Trump cuts military exercises to flatter a dictator or punishes South Korea for declining to join a war he started, all of our allies — and adversaries — think that America’s commitments are negotiable. Kim Jong Un has won a propaganda victory and South Korea, one of our strongest allies, has been punished for no reason beyond Trump’s ego.

“China and Russia are watching how easily this president abandons America’s allies, and they will remember it the next time they test us.”

During his presidency, Joe Biden made major strides in strengthening ties between the U.S. and our South Korean allies. Trump is needlessly going out of his way to undo that progress in ways that can only benefit our enemies.

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