The Ulchi Freedom Shield Cuts: Why Did the US Rattle Its Most Important Asian Ally?

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When a US president scales back military exercises with a key Pacific ally hours before they begin, and offers two contradictory reasons for doing so, the question isn’t which reason is true. It’s what both of them together reveal about the state of American strategy. President Donald Trump announced on Sunday, in a Truth Social post, that he had instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, the annual joint military drills between American and South Korean forces that were set to run through August 27. The timing was striking. The announcement came hours before…

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