The U.S. Chooses Favorites: North Korea over South Korea || Aug 20, 2026

@Peter can you rank post WW2 presidents by Damage to the international order?

So how much does the fact the majority of the South Korean government is now controlled by a party that has ties to CCP and Korean Workers Party in North Korea and is pretty Anti-US, Japan?

Hmmm...longtime crypto criminal North Korean elite meets Crypto Clan Trump in a Russian Tea Room and they get ideas on how they can be "friends"...?

I hate Trump but I disagree with Peter here. Kim has always loathed the existence of China and their overbearing control over NK multiple insiders have stated this. Kim has on multiple occasions attempted to kindle savory relations with the US. Kim is very westernized but he’s in a pickle jar. I believe if we partnered with NK united the north and the south, transgressed the people of NK into a structured society over the next 50 years this would make the world less dangerous. Think about how cool it would be if those nukes were then facing China as a front line of protection for South Korea.

“President Donald Trump is NOT a source” @BelleRanch “Belle of the Ranch” On Wednesday Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s supreme leader, said she knew “absolutely nothing” about the supposed communications, and that while Trump and Kim had an excellent relationship, the US remained an enemy of Pyongyang. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/19/kim-jong-un-sister-doubt-trump-claims-secret-us-north-korea-talks

south korea frigates can absolutely reach the hormuz strait lol wtf

can you never be objective when dealing w trumpy? how you have gotten it, baffles me, it’s in the National Security Strategy! korea and Japan leading the orient, and trump is throwing a small punishment for not using their frigates to help escort ships at the hormuz strait

Staggering collapse of a nations values. And the whole country just watches on. Americans are not eating grass yet but give it time.

What are the chances of a Korean-Japanese-Taiwanese-Philippine defense alliance, because rationally, that’s what the shituation calls for… …possibly with a Vietnamese/Cambodia association

Peter says near the end that, unless there’s a dinner with Kim in it for him, he doesn’t see the benefit. 😉 But how about this: If Trump wants to make the US the “crypto capital of the world,” and most of the available Bitcoin has already been mined, perhaps he has his eye on some of the BTC North Korea has accumulated by now. I’m pretty sure they didn’t spend it all on pizza. 😉 And thank you for covering this—it had completely passed me by. Without these clips, I’d honestly be lost and uninformed. Greetings from Germany—and don’t forget: you’ve still got friends over here!

This probably came straight from the real US president in Moscow.

While in the USMC, we did a joint exercise with ROK marines in early 90's (think RIMPAC type of deal)... "Team Spirit" is what it was called back then, think it change after. It was an on again off again north Korea always complaining, negotiation piece... dunno, was enlisted, above my pay grade. Good "peace time" exercise.

The alternative would be to admit that the USS George Washington was needed in the Middle East due to a mismanaged carrier fleet from poor planning in Iran. And a depleted arsenal. But honesty about degraded capability and capacity doesn't belong on Truth Social.

Under Cheeto, we have NO ALLIES.

trump is the worst enemy for the usa

Trump is so fickle that two weeks from now, he will forget all about this fiasco unless someone reminds him of it. None of this is a permanent shift in policy, just the rants of a very old man.

Trump is basically dismantling the global order that makes the US strong and relevant. Ironically North Korea rebuked Trump's "friendly gesture". That's just sad. So much for winning eh?

It's ALL a CON! Just like DON! And you assholes voted for IT TWICE!!!!

You said the Koreans don't have an independent jet program, what about the KF-21?

Short of tossing around some nukes or invading Taiwan to give to Xi, can anyone here think of any thing Trump could do to destroy the United States faster? It's a mighty ship but Trump seems bent on dismantling it. And what does Scott Bessent (the man who dropped oil sanctions on Iran's oil 10 days into the war) hope to achieve by mucking with the bond market? The only reason treasury rates are as low as they are is because the world trusts the US NOT to muck with them in partisan/political ways. People forget the 2008 great recession was not triggered by the housing crisis. It was started when bond buyers said, "Hmm. I don't think I'll buy European (Greek in particular) bonds today", which forced Europeans to sell their housing derivative holdings which turned out to not only be very illiquid but a crap financial product to boot. I wish I could say I can't imagine what happens if the world loses confidence in US Treasuries, but I can.

They needed the aircraft carrier and he thought he could save some coin by cancelling the war games.

I had a guy in my office a couple of weeks ago saying that “…now we’re starting to see Trump’s grand strategy come together. None of it really made sense until now.” My jaw dropped. I asked him, how hard do you have to believe to make that statement true? Really, no matter what Trump does, his followers follow (and there are a lot of them). Unbelievable!

Agree that I don’t like Trump’s tone in the tweet. Most of what he says/does lacks coherence. But the accusation is not that SK will not send their non-existent blue water Navy to help in Iran. The accusation is that they turned down any opportunity to assist with an operation not on their doorstep. That could’ve been cyber, manufacturing, or diplomatic assistance. They didn’t even have to follow through, just offer support in public. Or they could apply that amazing new drone warfare knowledge to an operation of interest to their #1 ally in the world instead of telling us to pound sand.

Don't be fooled. This is another example of getting the American people distracted from what Trump is up to. Yes, this wrong on so many levels, but why is Trump doing this? The Trump family only has one objective: Make wealth for themselves. Donald just happens to be the face of it. The destruction of the US, the destruction of the world order, the destruction of human civility,,, is all to keep us distracted while they are lining their pockets. Every day the world stand around in amazement at their new dastardly deeds while few are looking at the graft they are committing. Congress needs to do their job. Congress needs to stand up to the president. Americans need to vote in congressional representation that will actually work for the American people.

And remember folks at any point the United States Senate can just stop this president, the founding fathers literally made the Senate an institution so powerful. It can stall the entire government if needed in order to ensure stability… The Republicans in the Senate are signing off on everything Trump does because they can simply stop him.

Peter. Thank you for identifying the higher order implications of DJTs actions. What is that old saying? When a sitting president flaps his wings.....geopolitical hurricanes occur on the other side of the world.

Fortunately Trump has short attention span and TACO, otherwise these apparent monumental shifts in alliances would become cemented. As it is now, they are tattered, frayed and cracked, but could be repaired overtime under a new Administration. Perhaps our historic alliances will not return to the World Order we have grown used to, but they could be salvaged and constructed into cooperative arrangements. The idea that the US could or should exert more influence and extract more concessions is not on its face a bad idea, but Trump's execution style is destructive not constructive.

Trump is a traitor to America

Trump has managed to tear down an order into which the US invested 80 years and fathomless dollars. SK, Japan, Canada, Australia, Brazil and Taiwan can all join the EU, as far as I'm concerned.

Every time I think Trump can't do anything more stupid than he has already done, he tops himself. You would hope that this would be the breaking point for many Republican politicians to quit kissing up to him but I doubt it.

Peter it's pronounced D-ram not duram. Love you.

He is looting our country and cannot stand seeing money go outward that he feels belongs to him. He wants to rule the US like his “friends” Putin, and Kim Jong. He covets the loyalty he sees in their people.

Australia will stand by our real allies (US people were always "suss" for us) regardless of the impossible tasks or outcome. Money is just a tool for us not our false profit or god...

Here's the thing a lot of people miss about Donny: Donny doesn't hold anything military in high regard. He thinks the military is a waste of money, because it doesn't generate money, only consume it. And Donny's number 1 take on life is: Make More Money. That's one of the reasons he's so frustrated with Iran. The things he listed as demands are mostly Military in nature and in his mind are worthless so Iran shouldn't hesitate to give them up so they can make more money. Thus when NK asks or demands the US give up something military if they want NK to play ball Trump will happily give it up because its worthless to him. They could probably demand the US give up its nukes and Trump would give it serious consideration. That's probably and exaggeration but I don't know how big of one.

I had to actually look up the difference between "populists" and "progressives." (Yeah I just ignored that stuff.) Turns out the Venn diagram overlaps at "distrust the rich and envy them"... But the two camps see each other as "city vs farm"... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?! (over?)

Cui Bono? Oh, yea our strategic rivals.

Jeez...🤦‍♂️

It is reasonable for the Republicans to be running an anti-institutional counter-revolution. Republicans define themselves as the party that has never been on board with Wilsonian ("Deweyism") progressive technocracy, and the degree to which the federal institutions have shown themselves to be self-absorbed and self-interested powers in their own right, beholden not one iota to the citizenry at large, makes that move an electoral slam dunk. (Vindman, who apparently thought he got to write his own foreign policy, being a STERLING example of that. Also that he was a loser who only got his moment to shine because he acted in opposition to Trump. He won't be missed, even by his own party). But watching POTUS unilaterally trash the parts of 70 years of diplomacy that were *working*, more or less out of personal pique, is painful. Watching Vance (who has no accomplishments to speak of besides Trump) try to DEFEND that, otoh.... cue the popcorn. (Rubio is effective but favored by only a bit under a fifth of Team Red, so it's unlikely he gets the nod).

Okay, okay, I get it. I'll tone down my Trump-bashing.

One has to wonder why everyone is focusing on the internal US politics. That ship has sailed, and the economic and strategic fallout from all of this ensures that so many interlocking dominos are going to rearrange the world disorder. I really have to laugh at the number of "rich" people who think a bunker or redoubt is the answer. In short, we now have to move and dance much faster, and be more nimble before reality wrecks us. And so many Americans have gotten very rich off the status quo. It's over. Period. Want to really talk about screwed? Capital controls are going to make a return with this crisis.

My guess would be he doesn't want Nort Korea to do a cyber attack on HIS crypto.

Apparently, stating the obvious isn't allowed here any longer. I will say it in a more palatable manner. This is pushing the structural checks and balances of our government to their absolute limit; and is the very definition of a Constitutional crisis.

Yeah, but Hunter Biden laptop, and all that corruption in Ukraine. Let’s not forget that.

No Korea is aiding Putin in his aggression against Ukraine. Thump likes to make Putin happy & he loves dictators. Seems clear to me.

So we march into oblivion with the Senate Repugs leading the charge.

He’s right on about the memory chips, but I’m not sure what he’s talking about in regards to the South Korean defense industry. They are becoming a massive producer and exporter of jets, tanks and other military kit, particularly to Poland.

They need to let Trump distract himself with monuments and ballrooms before he screws up the US strategic position even further

Amazing…

Oooh ... this was/is predictable, actually. Both expected and predictable. Ballyhoos, Bravado and a continuous StreamOvLies and Facts-Reconstruction. 👁️ see a lot more of this "Provacative," Flash-Point-Market-Moving statements going into and after the mid-term election. He will continue to work to reverse democracy with typical ballyhoos and bluster. Donny will continue to turn on Long established allies while extending favouritism to despots and authoritarians. 👁️expect to see an increasing TideOvThis type of decision-making ... sadly ... weekly ,,, for the rest of his term. 🐈

I wouldnt say the US is now supporting North Korea over South Korea because Trump said this...

Will our foreign policy collapse (if not already) before Orange Man is done in office?

All them times SK was thinking less about Hynix and more about UEnrix: https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2004-12/iaea-seouls-nuclear-sins-past

Thanks Peter Maybe you can record a video of potential scenarios for the next decade? For future world past dismantled trade triangle US-China-EU as a backbone of old economy order. As well as from safety perspective. With cheap autonomous drones that can pick the target on their own. One can only imagine what countries that have nothing to lose might make out of those capabilities. Are we going full speed towards 1984 ? Cause current AI is definitely capable of making that level of surveillance real. And the only obstacle is "it's not humane" But if societies that cherish such approach will decide not defend themselves - we eventually could end up in 1984 world

“Thank you for your attention to this matter. What was I talking about?”