President Trump is right to demand greater South Korean funding for U.S. military operations in that nation and Seoul’s own defense budget. Trump is wrong to insult that nation’s president and people publicly.
Trump would find more success on the first issue were he to abandon his current approach to the second.
I note this in light of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s perspective piece for the Washington Post. According to Hogan, Trump told him how much he respected and liked Chinese leader Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Hogan recalled that Trump then said that “he really didn’t like dealing with President Moon [Jae-in] from South Korea. The South Koreans were ‘terrible people,’ [Trump] said, and he didn’t know why the United States had been protecting them all these years. ‘They don’t pay us,’ Trump complained.”
Hogan observed that his South Korean wife “Yumi was sitting there as the president hurled insults at her birthplace. I could tell she was hurt and upset. I know she wanted to walk out. But she sat there politely and silently.”
Considering Trump’s penchant for firing off insults, Hogan’s recollection is credible. That credibility finds added weight in Trump’s public lambasting of South Korea for not paying more toward U.S. military costs on its soil. Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton also repeatedly referenced Trump’s dislike for Moon in his book, The Room Where It Happened.
Regardless, Trump is wrong to insult the South Korean president and people.
There are legitimate concerns over South Korean policy. But South Korea is an ally, and Moon has consistently shown public respect and often abundant praise for Trump. Insulting these people does no service to the United States. On the contrary, it makes America’s ally more tempted to turn away from Washington and toward the waiting arms of Beijing. China has escalated its wooing of Seoul into a closer orbit with the offer of massive trade deals. Were Seoul to take the offer, America’s $56 billion a year annual exports to South Korea and the U.S. security umbrella in the Pacific would suffer. As would America’s credibility with other allies, who would be more tempted to follow suit.
Trump does, however, have a point when it comes to South Korean military spending.
South Korea presently spends in the region of 2.5%-2.8% of its GDP on defense. While that’s more than most European nations, which also should be spending more to support NATO, South Korea faces an unprecedented threat from North Korea. Absent the tens of thousands of U.S. military forces and capabilities in its defense, Seoul would have to spend at least a full percentage point more of its GDP to defend itself. That would mean approximately $16 billion a year extra. In turn, Trump is both justified and right to push hard both for increased South Korean defense spending and for greater burden sharing in relation to U.S. bases on its soil.
The irony, however, is that were Trump to show a greater public cordiality to Moon and his people, saving harsher words for private meetings with Moon, he would find himself far likelier to accomplish his South Korean objectives. As in many nations, South Koreans do not like the perception that a U.S. president is lecturing their own leader. In turn, that makes it harder for any democratic leader who needs to win reelection or secure political power to make concessions to said president.
It’s in Trump’s own interest that he show more tact.
