Trump orders Pentagon to scale back joint exercises with South Korea
President Donald Trump gestures as he boards Air Force One at Morristown Airport, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026, in Morristown, N.J.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
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Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon on Sunday to scale back annual joint military exercises with South Korea, saying the ally declined to help with the war against Iran and citing his good relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Trump said in a social media post that the exercises, which began Monday, are not only costly but “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” during his time in the White House.
“Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!” Trump wrote. The president added that he recently asked South Korea’s president if they would join the U.S. in the “denuclearization” of Iran, “and they said, ‘No thanks!'”
The move is the latest example of the president appearing to turn against an ally in favor of a leader that previous administrations have cast as an adversary. Trump and others in his administration have also railed against NATO allies over perceived lack of support for his war against Iran, even as they seek to confront an increasingly aggressive Russia in the Baltic region.
It is also a sharp turnaround from how his administration has viewed South Korea in recent months.
In May, Hegseth praised the longtime ally for its “commitment to increase defense spending” and its “leadership in assuming primary responsibility for the security of the Korean Peninsula” during a meeting at the Pentagon.
“It demonstrates alliance burden-sharing that all of America’s partners would do well to follow,” the defense secretary added.
What the US military says about the joint exercises
The 11 days of exercises involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.
The U.S. military has said the summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises reinforce “the role of the alliance as the linchpin for regional peace and security” and reaffirm “the ironclad commitment between the United States and the Republic of Korea to defend their homelands.” The exercises are one of the two main combined drills conducted by the South Korean and U.S. militaries annually, along with their springtime training.
U.S. and South Korean forces were expected to practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, and distribution of prepositioned military equipment, according to the U.S. military. South Korea’s Defense Ministry confirmed that the exercises began on Monday as planned.
The joint training started days after North Korea resumed ballistic missile testing activities in defiance of U.N. bans.
Trump’s decision was sharply criticized by Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy pilot, who said that “hollowing out these joint exercises is shortsighted and a mistake” in a social media post made just hours after the president’s own post. Earlier this month, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan detected the launches of two ballistic missiles from North Korea in what were the North’s first ballistic weapons testing activities since late June. The missiles landed in the waters off North Korea’s east coast.
North Korea threatens strong response
North Korea has been pushing hard to enlarge its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim’s high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. Experts say Kim likely believes a bigger weapons arsenal would increase his chances for wresting more concessions from the U.S. in future negotiations.
North Korea on Friday threatened unspecified stern steps against the U.S. and South Korea, describing their military drills as a “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” that are triggering greater instability in the region.
The warning was typical of the harsh rhetoric that North Korea often deploys ahead of major U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Experts say North Korea has often used its rivals’ drills as a pretext to ramp up testing activities to modernize weapons and promote public support for the reclusive North Korean leader.
Trump met with the North Korean leader three times during his first term to discuss the country’s nuclear program, most recently in 2019. Since returning to office, Trump has expressed interest in continuing those discussions. In September 2025, Kim said he held “good personal memories” of Trump and suggested he could return to talks if the U.S. drops “its delusional obsession with denuclearization” of North Korea.
Trump’s announcement came a day after he posted a photo of himself standing next to North Korea’s Kim, writing that the two leaders get along great “despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture.”
This is not the first time that Trump has sought to end the exercises. During his first term he also issued a surprise announcement that called the war games “provocative.”
“We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should,” Trump told reporters after his 2018 meeting with Kim in Singapore.
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