I remember some estimates made after the US elections of what Stephen Miller's policy would cost. According to these estimates, following Miller's plan would require more or less the entire world's GDP to be invested in the US for several consecutive years. Obviously, this would require more than a little bullying to get there.
So far, we got the bullying, plenty of non-binding agreements, 100% of goodwill and soft power loss, increased soft power for China, a looming financial crisis, two wars between major powers getting closer by the day. We'll see whether the investments are coming, too.
It's a personal shakedown. What they're actually asking for is this: https://www.theverge.com/news/737757/apple-president-donald-...
Being an unreasonable, unmeetable deal on paper is just a feature. You're not supposed to meet the text of the deal. You're supposed to get under the table and ask "how can we facilitate this?" while palming a hundred dollar bill. It's like a police shakedown in less stable countries.
A more serious question for Korea is the US military protection against North Korea and/or China. They may yet end up in the unthinkable alliance with their historic enemy, Japan.
Lee Jae-myung is seeking closer relations with the PRC. I view it as part of the missing context to this spat. These events preceded the US administration's actions.
https://world.kbs.co.kr/service/news_view.htm?Seq_Code=18451...
As things are going China could protect South Korea from North Korea as well as the USA. Also SK wouldn't be in the immediate wrath of China during an conflict escalation between USA and China. Practically SK should have a strong negotiation position against the blackmail demands of Trump. Trump is bringing his enemies closer together and starting to loose allies to the other side too.
The PRC would be delighted to see South Korea enter the Sinosphere and abandon the US. If nothing else, China would see it as a return to historic norms where most of East Asia serves as tribute states to the Chinese empire.
But also likewise, Korea holds historic antagonism towards China, arguably just as much as it does to Japan. Most of the population would hate such a relationship, and despite some in the left thinking otherwise, most South Koreans still see the US as the favorable partner over China.
But with China’s continued rise, and the US seemingly evolving (irreversibly?) into the MAGA Empire, that perception isn’t guaranteed to never change either. The PRC isn’t doing itself much favors in courting its neighbors, so it’ll become a game of who is worse.
Historically he has had bouts of anti-American rhetoric.
The same can be said with the Korean liberal/left parties in general, to varying degrees.
So while he is currently presenting himself as more of a centrist and pragmatist, it remains to be seen if he remains so.
Conspiracy theorists on the Korean right claim it is Trump that is playing into LJM’s hand in providing an excuse to pivot to the PRC.
I have to ask: given how powerful the US is... which party outside of the US doesn't have some anti-American rhetoric?
In fact, France is the US' oldest ally and its best known president in the 20th century is largely remembered for making sure to remain militarily independent from the US.
Is almost like a foreign agent is in charge.
Yep, most things Trump does make sense if we assume he's a Russian puppet. Russia really wants to divide West, to keep world hooked on fossil fuels, and to undermine democracy everywhere.
The things Trump does *also* make sense if you assume he's not a Russian puppet. He also wants to divide Europe against itself, keep the world hooked on (US) fossil fuels and to undermine threats to his rule. He doesn't need Russia for that, but their interests do sometimes align and it would be stupid not to take advantage of it.
> but their interests do sometimes align
I think this is more likely than some 'agent' plot. These people do not really care about countries, but what benefits them and their extended family. As Italians would say: "our thing".
His personal lawyer and mentor was also a lawyer for the major mafia families in NYC and a known blackmailer and fixer, the student has surpassed the master.
> As Italians would say: "our thing".
Ouch.
There are plenty of other explanations that fit the facts. This whole "Trump is a foreign agent" thing is just like the "twin towers were brought down by the CIA" conspiracy: people don't want to believe their own country could be so broken as to let this happen, and so it must have been some planned action by a group they hate.
Broken countries are easy targets for foreign owned actors to take control.
Trump is 100% American.
I wish people who said things like this, or who believed that Trump is/was a Russian agent could see how silly and racist they look. America's problems are not caused by foreigners. They're caused by Americans.
The xenophobia exhibited by sentiments such as this simply demonstrate hatred and ignorance of the world outside of the USA, and demonstrate an incapacity to critically evaluate American culture and history.
I am not Xenophobic of Russia. I speak and read Russian and my partner is Russian. I also don’t hate the world outside of the USA. In have lived in that world for more than ten years. I simply think that trump is a patsy. Whether he knows he is or not doesn’t matter. Putin plays him like a fiddle.
That being said, I absolutely completely agree with you that American problems are caused by Americans.
Russia has puppet states and is actively working on building them. Russia is actively trying to influence elections in foreign countries too. Trump being suspect Russian puppet is not xenofobia, it is completely consistent with what Russia is and who Trump is.
That aside, US electorates has decided to award another term for Trump. FYI at that point Trump is not an unknown dark horse candidate anymore and he even won the popular vote. Last time a GOP president won popular vote was 20 years ago.
So it's very fair to attribute the so called erraticness to what American want in general instead of attributing it to Putin or other non American.
Or that foreign influence campaigns on social media are having a good return on their investment cost.
Completely consistent with what Russia is? Sure. With who Trump is? I'm not sure that I see it. Trump does not strike me as the kind of guy who would willingly be someone else's puppet.
Unwillingly? Sure. Being played? Sure. Knowingly being a puppet? No.
He acts like Putins puppet. I can see it both willingly and unwillingly. Trump admires powerful dictators and wants their validation. Putin is one. Also, I would not be surprised at all if there was unwilling component too.
> to be invested in the US
to invest in US (i.e. to buy a piece of US) one has to sell something to US to get dollars while not buying US products in return, ie. an US trade deficit is needed. And that at the same time while US is introducing tariffs to reduce the said trace deficit.
You assume that the current admin is not simply asking for gifts.
We live in an economy that is highly virtualized, where the same unit of currency can be used several times simultaneously to borrow, lend, re-borrow, etc. so I'm not sure it's that simple.
If the US gets invested with such "virtual" ("out-of-thin-air", newly issued, etc.) dollars i guess it would be even worse as it would only inflate prices in US while not doing anything else.
Maybe?
What we're discussing is clearly beyond my ability to grasp (macro-)economics.
Being the biggest reserve currency has a little-discussed perk where the reserves lower the average velocity of money, which blunts the inflationary pressure of money-printing. Eroding trust in the US will deplete these deep pools of USD and will result in a more direct linkage with domestic inflation in the future.
It is inflating prices but also doing a lot more contrary to nothing.
"require more or less the entire world's GDP to be invested in the US for several consecutive years"
Whoever wrote that is making stuff up now, even worse than Sam Altman asking for trillions of dollars to build data centers
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sam-altman-seeks-trillions-of-do...