Trump sticks to his guns on Korea troop withdrawal

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.

Trump 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.

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