Trump Suggests Withdrawing Troops From South Korea Over Trade Issues| Ties trade deficit to deployment costs in speech to donors
President Trump’s Wednesday fundraiser in Missouri is raising eyebrows in the news, as he suggested to donors that he is considering withdrawing US troops from South Korea if he can’t get a better trade deal out of their government.
Trump didn’t go into tremendous details about whether this meant a full withdrawal or a drawdown, and a lot of analysts were very dismissive of the report, suggesting it was an empty threat and just a negotiating tactic.
Trump, however, is known to take trade deficits seriously, and directly ties those to the cost of having 32,000 US troops in South Korea, saying “ we lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. ” During his 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly expressed annoyance that the US was spending so much on its military to protect wealthy allies with big trade surpluses with the US.
