{"id":4930,"date":"2026-08-18T09:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T09:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4930"},"modified":"2026-08-18T09:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T09:36:33","slug":"wsj-unmasks-trumps-desperate-move-to-hide-latest-major-embarrassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4930","title":{"rendered":"WSJ unmasks Trump\u2019s desperate move to hide latest major embarrassment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s recent decision to pull back American military support for South Korea may just be an attempt to \u201cchange the subject\u201d from his ongoing failure to wrap up the Iran war, at least according to one conservative newspaper.<\/p>\n

Read more Colorado slams the door on Trump DOJ following 23rd straight loss<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is nothing if not impulsive, and his latest brainstorm is to rekindle his courtship of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un,\u201d The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote on Monday. \u201cHe announced Sunday evening on\u2014where else?\u2014social media that he had ordered the Pentagon to \u2018substantially reduce\u2019 U.S. military exercises with South Korea that were set to begin on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The editorial board added that Trump says he has a \u201cvery good relationship\u201d with Kim Jong Un and criticized him for saying that the military exercises \u201csend 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the contrary, pulling back from the exercises sends a message of weakening deterrence and readiness against a regime that has a history of threats and aggression against the South,\u201d the Journal argued. \u201cThe North had protested, as usual, ahead of the routine exercises, and Mr. Trump\u2019s order is an act of appeasement toward Mr. Kim.\u201d<\/p>\n

It continued, \u201cMr. Trump might be trying to change the subject from the stalemate with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz. Or he might be trying to appease Mr. Kim at a moment when U.S. weapons stocks and deployments are stretched.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately they expressed worry that as a result of Trump\u2019s pulling back from South Korea, \u201cChina may not use this opportunity to move against Taiwan, but it has been ratcheting up its aggressive moves against Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines in the East and South China Seas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Journal is not alone among conservatives in slamming Trump\u2019s decision toward South Korea. Miles Taylor, Trump\u2019s Deputy Chief of Staff in the Department of Homeland Security during his first term,<\/p>\n

\u201cStart with Korea,\u201d Taylor argued on Monday. \u201cOn Sunday, Trump ordered the Pentagon to \u2018substantially reduce\u2019 our joint military exercises with South Korea, complaining that our ally wouldn\u2019t join his war with Iran and insisting the drills send a signal that is \u2018inappropriate and hostile\u2019 to our friends in North Korea, which he called \u2018unthreatening and respectful.\u2019 Ah yes, Mr. President, they are so \u2018unthreatening\u2019 that during your first term we had to urgently plan for the possibility that the hermit kingdom might launch a nuclear attack on the continental United States because Kim Jong Un was so \u2018respectful.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Receipts don\u2019t lie: Blanche trapped by legal experts over Trump fabrication<\/a><\/p>\n

He concluded, \u201cBy the way, Trump announced America\u2019s pull-back from its longtime ally days after North Korea launched a ballistic missile in a show of force against the South.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor was joined by a foreign policy expert from a top think tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is equally true that America\u2019s partners should expect the global hegemony to act predictably in its own interests,\u201d Michael Sobolik, a Senior Fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), posted on X. \u201cRegardless of Seoul\u2019s behavior, Washington benefits when Pyongyang is hemmed in and deterred from adventurism and belligerence. More broadly, America\u2019s interests demand that North Korea never unify the peninsula. For these reasons alone, military exercises with South Korea should persist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly conservative MS NOW host Joe Scarborough denounced Trump for sending “love letters” to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, a man the former Republican lawmaker characterized as the “worst, most repressive tyrant on the face of the earth.”<\/p>\n

As far back as his first term, observers have worried that Trump is too close to the North Korean despot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in North Korea [President] Kim Jong-il, the father of the current president there, said that he didn\u2019t have any problems with us having our troops in South Korea,\u201d Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told this journalist for Salon in 2019.<\/p>\n

She concluded, \u201cI do think that what is worrisome to me is, in an effort to be flattered by Kim Jong-un, that he gives away something that might have a longer term effect for the next administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump just handed America\u2019s enemies everything they wanted<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s recent decision to pull back American military support for South Korea may just be an attempt to \u201cchange the subject\u201d from his ongoing failure to wrap up the Iran war, at least according to one conservative newspaper.\u201cPresident Trump is nothing if not impulsive, and his late…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWSJ unmasks Trump\u2019s desperate move to hide latest major embarrassment - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4930\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WSJ unmasks Trump\u2019s desperate move to hide latest major embarrassment - 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