Trump orders Pentagon to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea

President Trump announced on Truth Social that he had instructed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to substantially scale back the Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his 'very good relationship' with Kim Jong Un, the cost of the drills, and South Korea's refusal to join the U.S. effort to denuclearize Iran. Trump described the exercises—designed to deter North Korean aggression—as 'totally inappropriate and hostile' toward Pyongyang. The order, which came hours before the drills were set to begin and involved 18,000 South Korean troops alongside U.S. and allied forces, drew warnings from military officials that North Korea was gaining battlefield experience from the Ukraine war and that downsizing would weaken deterrence and the U.S.-South Korea alliance. This echoes Trump's first-term pattern of unilaterally reducing or cancelling joint exercises with South Korea, such as after the 2018 Singapore summit.