Trump links ties with Kim Jong Un and scaled-back U.S.-South Korea drills, as analyst says tough approach can help

President Trump reiterated to reporters on Wednesday that he has a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while also again criticizing joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises. In an interview with PBS NewsHour, Hudson Institute analyst Rebeccah Heinrichs said the president’s approach toward allies, though sometimes described as harsh, can have a “net positive” effect on alliance behavior and negotiations.

Heinrichs’s comments were framed around how Trump communicates with both partners and adversaries. She said Trump’s public stance toward allies and adversaries is intended to push governments to act differently, emphasizing that the president repeatedly contrasts diplomatic engagement with efforts he believes are provocative or wasteful.

The interview also revisited Trump’s earlier decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea. On Wednesday, Trump again described the exercises as something he did not want to continue in their then-current form, linking the criticism to his broader message about how he intends to manage pressure and diplomacy with North Korea.

In discussing U.S. relationships with allies, Heinrichs pointed to the administration’s emphasis on leverage and costs. She argued that alliance dynamics can shift when Washington indicates displeasure publicly, rather than limiting disagreements to private channels, and when it ties military activities to outcomes it expects from partners.

Heinrichs’s assessment was presented as analysis of the administration’s posture rather than a policy document, and it was not accompanied by new details in the PBS segment about the specific timing or scope of any ongoing exercise changes. The interview, however, highlighted the administration’s continued focus on how joint drills with South Korea are perceived and how U.S. officials publicly characterize their contact with North Korea.

The policy implications of Trump’s remarks will depend on how the next phase of U.S.-South Korea planning and any follow-on North Korea diplomacy develops, including whether the administration maintains changes to the drill schedule and whether it uses its public messaging to shape South Korea’s decisions. For now, the Wednesday remarks underscored that the administration is continuing to connect alliance management to its engagement strategy with Pyongyang.