Donald Trump has instructed his Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to ‘substantially reduce’ joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea. The two countries have had a bilateral defence agreement since 1953, and it was in defence of the government in Seoul that 36,500 American service personnel gave their lives during the Korean War. (It is worth noting that, despite the signing of an armistice at Panmunjom in July 1953, the conflict is technically ongoing.)

Trump’s hazardous decision to downgrade military co-operation with and support for South Korea has come as a surprise. When his rhetoric is examined, however, the depressing truth is that it is a combination of several of Trump’s worst habits, instincts and prejudices when it comes to making foreign policy: familiar elements put together in a new way.

Firstly, it relies on a self-aggrandising and false view of the President’s own personal genius. The view peddled by some that Trump plays some kind of Jedi-style four-dimensional chess that mere mortals cannot understand has taken some knocks. His grandiose plan for Gaza stubbornly refuses to materialise and the war with Iran drags on at increasing expense but with an elusive and nebulous endgame.

None of this makes sense, but it was never going to

None of this makes sense, but it was never going to

Trump is........

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