South Korea

Trump's Dictator Envy Is Once Again on Display in Tiff with South Korea

The president openly admires world leaders who exercise absolute power.

J.D. Tuccille | 8.19.2026 7:00 AM

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(Illustration: Samuel Corum - Pool via CNP/picture alliance / Consolidated News Photos/Yan Yan / Xinhua News Agency/Newscom/Bumbleedee/Dreamstime)

President Donald Trump's decision to "substantially reduce" joint military exercises between the armed forces of the United States and those of South Korea captures the distilled essence of the nation's current chief executive in its combination of petulance and affection for autocrats. On the one hand, he wants to punish our allies in the Republic of Korea for withholding support for the U.S. war with Iran. Especially, though, he wants to avoid offending the communist dictator of North Korea by training alongside our democratic and relatively free allies on the Korean peninsula.

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'My Very Good Relationship with Kim Jong Un'

"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 posted Sunday on Truth Social. "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........

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