President Trump ordered the Pentagon to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, citing cost, his relationship with Kim Jong Un, and Seoul's refusal to help denuclearize Iran.
President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon on Sunday to substantially reduce the scale of upcoming joint military exercises with South Korea, citing the cost to American taxpayers, his strong relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and Seoul's refusal to help with the denuclearization of Iran.
Trump announced the decision in a post on Truth Social just hours before Ulchi Freedom Shield, one of the two major annual U.S.-South Korea exercises, was set to begin Monday. The 11-day drill was expected to involve roughly 18,000 South Korean soldiers along with U.S. forces in live-fire, river-crossing, and precision-targeting scenarios.
Trump said the exercises send the wrong message to a nation that has posed no threat during his presidency.
"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," Trump wrote. "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."
Trump noted that it was too late to cancel the drills entirely, so he directed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to substantially reduce them.
The president also revealed that he recently asked South Korean President Lee Jae Myung whether Seoul would join the United States in the denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the answer was no.
"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!'," Trump wrote.
The decision marks a return to the approach Trump took during his first term, when the U.S. and South Korea reworked their large-scale annual exercises into smaller drills in the aftermath of the 2019 Hanoi summit with Kim. Critics of the exercises have long argued they provoke the North and drain American resources, while defenders say they are essential to deterrence on the peninsula.
North Korea conducted a ballistic missile test on Wednesday, its first since June, in what military officials assessed as an apparent protest against the upcoming drills. The scaled-down exercise is expected to ease tensions and reduce the risk of miscalculation on the peninsula.
U.S. and South Korean military leaders had held a joint press conference last week announcing Ulchi Freedom Shield, describing the event as defensive in nature and similar in scale to previous years. The reduced version will still include training to counter drones, GPS disruption, and cyberattacks as the allies adapt to the North's evolving capabilities.
The president's move reflects his longstanding commitment to cutting unnecessary spending, keeping American troops out of harm's way, and pursuing peace through strength and personal diplomacy. It also sends a clear message to allies that the United States expects reciprocity when it asks for help on shared security challenges.
Trump has repeatedly emphasized his unique rapport with Kim Jong Un, describing their relationship as a key asset in keeping the Korean Peninsula stable and preventing the escalation that defined previous administrations. Sunday's announcement is the latest example of the president putting America First while working to reduce tensions with a nuclear-armed adversary.
President Trump ordered the Pentagon to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, citing cost, his relationship with Kim Jong Un, and Seoul's refusal to help denuclearize Iran.
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