Trump explains the reason behind his decision to scale back military exercises with South Korea

President Donald Trump explained on Monday from the Oval Office that his decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, despite the presence of U.S. troops in the country to deter potential aggression from North Korea, had a lot to do with Seoul's refusal to assist his Republican administration in its efforts to denuclearize Iran's theocratic regime.

Trump explained on this point that he recently spoke by phone with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and asked him if his government was willing to provide the United States with "a little hand" regarding Iran. "I called him. I said, 'Would you like to give us a little hand? We don't need help with Iran, but if you want to, give us a hand with Iran.' He said, 'No, thanks,' and I said, 'Wait a minute. We have 39,000 troops there, protecting you from Kim Jong Un, your next-door neighbor, and you're not going to help us with a very easy military operation in Iran. That's strange,'" said Trump, who added that the South Korean leader told him he would prefer to stay out of the conflict with Tehran.

"I want to help them, but, you know, when you ask someone, 'Would you like to give us a hand?', and they say, 'No, thanks,' and then we're protecting them from another country and paying billions of dollars ourselves… to protect not only them, but other countries as well," Trump said.

On Sunday, Trump ordered the Department of Defense to scale back upcoming joint military exercises with South Korea substantially. The president justified the measure as necessary to curb excessive public spending borne by U.S. taxpayers, adding that such deployments send unnecessarily hostile signals to Pyongyang.

In a Truth Social post, the U.S. leader questioned defense agreements inherited from previous administrations and called for more responsible fiscal management of troop deployments abroad. "Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un of North Korea, I am not happy that the United States agreed, long ago, to participate in joint military exercises with South Korea. Not only are these exercises costly—and most of these costs are paid for by the United States of America (as usual!)—but they **send a signal that is entirely inappropriate and hostile** toward a country that, while Donald J. Trump has been president, has not threatened and has been respectful," the president stated.