President Trump says it’s time to hit the brakes on US war games with South Korea, the Washington Post reports. In a Truth Social post Sunday, the POTUS said he ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to sharply scale back joint military drills, arguing they’re expensive and send the wrong message to North Korea, which he described as “unthreatening and respectful” during his tenure. Meanwhile, the US will be without an aircraft carrier in the Pacific, Axios reports, as the USS George Washington is leaving the area to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East.
Trump’s vow to “substantially reduce” war games follows Pyongyang’s latest denunciation of the upcoming exercises as a rehearsal for actual war. Trump said it was too late to halt drills starting Monday but vowed to reduce future ones, while also knocking Seoul for declining to join US efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program. He highlighted his personal rapport with North Korea’s leader, sharing an old photo and insisting, “Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!” During his first presidential term, Trump said after meeting with Kim in 2018 that he wanted to “stop” the war games, the AP reports.