Trump instructs Pentagon to scale back joint drills with South Korea

"Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea," he wrote on TruthSocial.

Trump emphasized that these exercises are not only costly, "with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful."

"Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!" the post reads. 

Trump also noted that he had recently asked the President of the Republic of Korea whether his country would like to join the United States “in the matter of denuclearizing the Islamic Republic of Iran,” to which the reply was: “No, thank you!”.

Earlier, Donald Trump ordered a broad set of measures to rebuild the US Navy and strengthen the country’s shipbuilding industrial base, citing rising costs, delays, cancellations and limited competition among shipbuilders.