The Trump regime is currently denying it, but the New York Times reported last night that Trump has ordered the Pentagon to draft plans for possibly withdrawing from South Korea.
Officials who spoke to the Times say the White House's thinking is that keeping troops in the country wouldn't be necessary if the North and South sign a peace treaty.
Reduced troop levels are not intended to be a bargaining chip in Mr. Trump’s talks with Mr. Kim about his weapons program, these officials said. But they acknowledged that a peace treaty between the two Koreas could diminish the need for the 28,500 soldiers currently stationed on the peninsula.
Mr. Trump has been determined to withdraw troops from South Korea, arguing that the United States is not adequately compensated for the cost of maintaining them, that the troops are mainly protecting Japan and that decades of American military presence had not prevented the North from becoming a nuclear threat.
I'm not going to sit here and say we should keep troops stationed in South Korea forever, however it feels like everyone has forgotten that North Korea has nuclear weapons and thousands of artillery pieces aimed at Seoul.
With the way things are going, it looks like North Korea will be allowed to keep their nuclear weapons, have sanctions lifted, and see American troops withdraw from the south. That's basically Kim Jon Un's wish list and it would amount to total capitulation by Trump.
I'm sure someone close to Trump will tell him we should not give Kim Jong Un everything he wants with nothing in return, but all of that advice could be negated by a single compliment or flattering remark by Kim Jong Un.
If Kim praises Trump during their upcoming meeting, Trump could leave the meeting ready to withdraw on that day.
The White House has denied many reports that turned out to be true (virtually all of them) so for the moment I'm going to assume Trump really has ordered the Pentagon to make plans.