President Trump said he canceled major joint military exercises with South Korea last week because they’re too expensive.
“We spent hundreds of millions of dollars on those exercises, and I hated to see it,” Trump told reporters in Hanoi after denuclearization talks broke down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The suspension of military drills was seen as a major concession to Kim, when Trump ordered the annual exercises scaled back last June at the time of the first Trump-Kim summit in Singapore.
But at his post-summit press conference in Vietnam Thursday, Trump said it was the expense of the “war games” that really bothered him.
“I was telling the generals — I said: Look, you know, exercising is fun and it’s nice and they play the war games. And I’m not saying it’s not necessary, because at some levels it is, but at other levels it’s not. But it’s a very, very expensive thing. And you know, we do have to think about that too.”
The Pentagon has said the annual exercises with South Korea’s military are crucial for helping that country defend itself from any attack from the North, and under former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the exercises continued covertly, with little fanfare.
[Related: Pentagon finally says how much canceled ‘war games’ with South Korea cost]
But Trump complained that South Korea is not paying the United States enough for the protection it provides, which is a pet peeve of the president and a source of friction in relations between Washington and Seoul.
“We fly these massive bombers in from Guam … and then they come and they drop millions of dollars of bombs, and then they go back,” said Trump. “It costs us $100 million every time we do it.”
Trump complained that the U.S. spends hundreds of millions of dollars on those exercises and doesn’t get reimbursed.
“We’re spending a tremendous amount of money on many countries, protecting countries that are very rich that can certainly afford to pay us and then some,” he said.
Despite these complaints, Trump insisted he has a good relationship with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
“Believe it or not, I have a great relationship with almost every leader. A lot of people find that hard to understand, but I do,” said Trump. “But some take advantage of our country like you wouldn’t believe. And when they know I know it — which I know in every case — maybe it sort of freezes them up a little bit.”
