
By calling U.S. military exercises with South Korea 'provocative,' Trump is repeating the talking points that a brutal dictator has used to smear America for decades.

Trump has been roundly criticized for making big concessions to the brutal North Korean regime while getting nothing in return. But it gets even worse than that. Trump didn't just make concessions — he actively promoted North Korean propaganda that denigrates the United States military.

Trump used "language out of the North Korean propaganda machine" when he described U.S. joint military exercises with South Korea as "provocative," former CIA chief and retired four-star general Michael Hayden said on CNN Tuesday morning.


It was bad enough that Trump gave North Korea something it had wanted for decades by agreeing to suspend military exercises with our ally, South Korea. What's more, Trump did this without bothering to tell South Korea first, and against the wishes of his own defense officials like James Mattis — who "vigorously opposed" curtailing our joint military exercises with South Korea, according to The Guardian.

But on top of all of that, Hayden explained, Trump played right into Kim Jong Un's hands by using the word "provocative" to describe these exercises.

Hayden, who served two tours of duty in South Korea, explained why the military exercises are so important to our alliance with Seoul.

"The whole defense of South Korea is based upon our ability — and the South and North Koreans' knowledge of our ability — to flow forces to the peninsula quickly for the defense of South Korea," Hayden said. "That's why we do the exercises. They're about the defense of the south.

"And the president calling them 'provocative' unfortunately takes the language out of the North Korean propaganda machine," Hayden added.

One major challenge of dealing with North Korea has always been the paranoia of its leaders. They are convinced that the United States is chomping at the bit to invade and conquer them, and so they claim that North Korea needs to develop a nuclear arsenal purely out of self-defense.

That's why North Korea has long insisted that when the U.S. conducts war games with South Korea, it's really just practicing for a first strike against the North — that it's preparing for an invasion, not a defense.

Kim Jong Un wants to smear our troops as a bloodthirsty force eager to invade and occupy, and Trump is helping him do that.

Trump, who claims that he loves the military and puts America first, is parroting talking points from a brutal Stalinist dictator that have been used to smear America for decades.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.