(MENAFN- Asia Times) Interviewed by Time magazine's Eric Cortellessa on April 27 for a cover story entitled“How far Trump would go ,” Donald Trump was asked,“Would you withdraw troops from South Korea?”
Without giving a yes or no answer, and citing incorrect figures, he repeated his previous arguments. His reply appeared to indicate that, if elected, he would resume his first-term negotiating stance of holding the threat of withdrawal over Seoul's head in order to extract higher payments.
According to Time's transcript of the interview , the former president and current presidential contender replied in these words:
That would be North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. There was reason during Trump's White House term to think that the president would acquiesce to Kim's call for troop withdrawal, hoping for a deal formally ending the Korean War.
President Donald J. Trump shakes hands with Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea Kim Jong Un Sunday, June 30, 2019, as the two leaders meet at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Official White House Photo by Shealah CraigheadTrump in that portion of the Time interview had his figures wrong. Time's fact-checkers note that“the actual number” of the troops is not 40,000 but 28,500.
According to the transcript, Trump added:
Trump's figures here were wrong again – as was what he was“hearing” had happened during the Biden administration.
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Feigned reluctance: New Zealand mulled joining AUKUS from the start Time's fact-checkers note :“During his presidency, Trump demanded that South Korea increase its contributions to host US troops in the country. In early 2019, the country's contribution increased by more than 10%, from $830 million annually to $924 million. Trump had requested the country pay as much as
$5 billion dollars -a 500% increase and a“non-starter” for South Korea, as Reuters
reported
at the time.
In 2021, the two countries agreed that South Korea would pay $1 billion that year-a 13.9% increase from its annual payments in 2019 and 2020, with costs increasing by 6.1 percent per year until 2025. The US and South Korea are currently
re-negotiating
a new cost-sharing agreement to begin in 2026.”
Trump continued:
The Korea portion of the interview, brief as it was, made headlines in South Korea.“Some of Trump's former advisers have commented that he mentioned withdrawing from South Korea behind closed doors,” noted a Washington dispatch published May 1 by the Seoul daily Hankyoreh .“Based on Trump's comments in the interview, if he is reelected this November, it is probable that he will use the threat of pulling US troops out of Korea as leverage in a new round of negotiations designed to further increase South Korea's contribution to defense costs.”
Trump in the Time interview also repeated his threat to NATO members that he accuses of not carrying their weight financially.
He was asked:“Sir, you have said that you're willing to let Russia 'do whatever the hell they want' to NATO countries that don't spend enough on their defense. If Putin attacked a NATO state that you believe was not spending enough on their defense, would the US come to that country's assistance?”
Trump's reply:
The questioner persisted and after further discussion Trump elaborated:
The author of The Art of the Deal didn't say the NATO threat had been only a negotiating stance. But even if it was, that does not appear always to have been the case with Trump's Korea troops withdrawal threat. As was President Jimmy Carter before him, there's evidence that Trump was serious in thinking withdrawal a good idea. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedlly talked him out of it once, but Kelly didn't last much longer in the job.
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