Democrats rebuke Trump over scaling back military drills with South Korea

President Donald Trump is facing pushback over his decision to reduce joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, with several Democrats accusing him of abandoning Washington’s allies.

Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the decision “inane”, saying that it sends a message that “America’s commitments are negotiable”.

“China and Russia are watching how easily this president abandons America’s allies and they will remember it the next time they test us,” Reed said in a statement on Monday.

Trump announced on Sunday that he had ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint drills with South Korean forces.

He suggested that the decision is based on his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as Seoul’s refusal to join the US-Israel war against Iran.

“I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the denuclearisation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, ‘No thanks!'” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The US president often frames the war with Iran as a denuclearisation push, but Tehran says it does not possess a nuclear weapon.

The war games with South Korea are part of a decades-long defence partnership between the two countries, which includes the 1953 Mutual Defence Treaty that effectively placed Seoul under Washington’s security umbrella.