CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale examined Trump’s claims about US military cost-sharing with South Korea after the president discussed the issue with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. Dale concluded that the central elements of Trump’s account were inaccurate. “Without exaggeration, every single part of the president’s story was wrong,” Dale said on CNN’s The Lead. Trump told reporters that South Korea had effectively contributed little toward the cost of the American military presence before his first presidency. According to Trump, his administration persuaded Seoul to pay close to $3 billion annually after he initially sought $10 billion. Trump further claimed that the arrangement included increases in subsequent years. Official figures cited by Dale contradict that account. South Korea had already been contributing hundreds of millions of dollars annually before Trump entered the White House. Under Barack Obama’s administration, its contribution exceeded $800 million a year, while agreements governing the sharing of costs had existed since 1991. Trump did negotiate an increase after taking office, but the resulting figure remained far below the amount he described Monday. “Now, Trump said that after he took office, he got South Korea to agree to pay $3 billion a year, and then subsequent increases the year after that and the year after that. In fact, he did secure a one-year increase of 8.2 percent, but that only brought the total to less than $1 billion—nowhere close to $3 billion—and there were no increases agreed to in the two subsequent years,” Dale said. Trump also placed his successor at the heart of his version of events. According to the president’s account, South Korea later approached Joe Biden and persuaded his administration to reverse the payment arrangement Trump said he had secured. Dale said no such cancellation occurred. Negotiations over a new cost-sharing agreement had stalled in 2020 amid the Trump administration’s demands, meaning Biden did not inherit the $3 billion arrangement described by Trump. Biden’s administration subsequently reached its own agreements with Seoul. South Korea accepted a 13.9 percent increase under a 2021 deal, followed by another 8.3 percent increase under an agreement reached in 2024. “And then, he told a story about South Korea calling up President Joe Biden and telling him that Trump was probably a bad person, and getting Biden to agree to immediately rescind the $3 billion payment that South Korea supposedly agreed to,” Dale said. “Biden did not rescind any Trump-era cost-sharing deal. In fact, there was no cost-sharing deal in place under Biden because negotiations on a new one had stalled amid Trump’s exorbitant demands in 2020.” Trump’s latest account therefore conflicts with both the documented payments made before his presidency and the agreements reached during the administrations that followed. Trump exposed while millions were watching: "Every single part of it was wrong"
Create an account or sign in to comment