US and South Korea scale back joint military drills after Trump orders cuts

Hours before a major military exercise was set to begin, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social ordering the Pentagon to significantly reduce joint drills with South Korea. The target was Ulchi Freedom Shield, an annual exercise that had been scheduled to run through late August, and the directive landed with the kind of timing that makes allied defense planners reach for antacids. The scaled-back version of the drills proceeded with approximately 18,000 South Korean troops alongside US forces, a reduction from the exercise’s originally planned scope. The exercises were originally designed as an 11-day operation, set to conclude around August 27. Why Trump pulled the brake Trump offered three reasons for the cutback: the drills are expensive, he has a positive personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and South Korea has been reluctant to join US efforts targeting Iran. That last point is the most diplomatically loaded of the three. Linking a bilateral defense commitment to a third-party foreign policy dispute is a significant signal about how the administration views alliance obligations, essentially treating them as negotiable based on broader compliance ...