In June, President Trump announced the end of military exercises with South Korea, saying they were “provocative,” and said he hoped at some point to withdraw all 28,500 US troops from South Korea. This was just three months after threatening to withdraw troops from South Korea over a trade dispute.
Over the weekend, however, President Trump told interviewers that he has absolutely no plans to ever withdraw US troops from South Korea.
He did say it was “very expensive” to keep troops there, which is in
keeping with Trump’s demands for South Korea to pay even more for the
troops.
All the other talk of withdrawing troops from South Korea? That never
happened, according to Trump. He’s insisting that not only are there no
plans, but that he’s “never even discussed removing them,” despite all the times he publicly discussed removing them.
While this is flagrantly untrue, it is not uncommon for the president to
insist that his current policy, however new, has always been his
intention, and that well documented reports to the contrary simply never
happened.
Trump: No Plans to Withdraw US Troops From South Korea
Says the issue has never come up
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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