Wall Street Journal Warns Donald Trump’s ‘Appeasement’ Sends Ominous Signal About America

The Wall Street Journal has accused Donald Trump of an “act of appeasement” toward North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, following the president’s controversial order to scale back joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises in the region.

In a Truth Social post, Trump cited his “very good relationship” with the despot for his decision, and also criticized South Korea’s failure to help with his attempts to denuclearize Iran.

But the Journal’s conservative editorial board, which has become a persistent thorn criticizing Trump throughout his second term, warned that reducing the exercises only “sends a message of weakening deterrence and readiness against a regime that has a history of threats and aggression against the South.”

It suggested that, with the decision, Trump may “be trying to change the subject from the stalemate with Iran,” with the war he launched in February still ongoing, or was perhaps “trying to appease Mr. Kim at a moment when U.S. weapons stocks and deployments are stretched.”

An investigation by Reuters published earlier this month alleged that the U.S. Army’s stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles is running dangerously low, due to the conflict with Iran, which has so far claimed the lives of 18 U.S. service members and injured more than 600 others.

Trump’s order to curtail the U.S.-South Korean military maneuvers will only “reinforce the growing belief in Asia and Europe that the U.S. is becoming an unreliable ally,” the Journal argued, predicting it may also end up moving South Korea closer toward developing “its own nuclear deterrent to counter the growing nuclear arsenal in North Korea.”