US President Donald Trump confirmed his intention to stop military exercise with South Korea while the negotiation with North Korea is in progress. He said in a Fox News interview in Singapore that “we’re not going to be doing the war games as long as we’re negotiating in good faith.” “So that’s good for a number of reasons, in addition to which we save a tremendous amount of money”. And, “you know, those things, they cost. I hate to appear a businessman, but I kept saying, what’s it costing?”
It’s unknown how Trump himself interpret the meaning of “negotiating in good faith”. Or he’s having different application of the words to different people. By the same logic, Trump should have stopped the threats of steel and aluminum tariffs to EU, Mexico and Canada, and refrain from raising the stakes with auto tariffs. Then, these parties can “negotiate in good faith”.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham blasted the idea of cost cutting as ridiculous as “it’s not a burden onto the American taxpayer to have a forward deployed force in South Korea.” He added that “It brings stability. It’s a warning to China that you can’t just take over the whole region. So I reject that analysis that it costs too much, but I do accept the proposition, let’s stand down (on military exercises) and see if we can find a better way here.”
