Fact check: Every single part of this Trump story about South Korea is wrong

By Daniel Dale, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump told a story about South Korea on Monday. Every single part of it is false.

Trump has delivered versions of his fictional story before; CNN debunked one telling last year. The president delivered Monday’s version the day after he announced the US would reduce military exercises with South Korea – citing his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and also mentioning that South Korea declined to participate in the US war with Iran.

The latest version of Trump’s tale, which you can watch in full here, went like this:

South Korea “essentially” didn’t pay for the cost of the US military presence in the country before Trump first became president. Trump then got South Korea to unhappily agree to pay “$3 billion” in a year, with further increases the following year and the year after that. But then the 2020 election was “rigged” against him. When Joe Biden became president, South Korea convinced Biden that Trump was “probably a bad person” and they shouldn’t have to pay the money, so Biden “immediately rescinded” Trump’s “order.”

Let’s walk through why all of this is wrong. The facts show that Trump’s comments include at least five separate inaccurate claims – in addition to his usual exaggeration of the size of the US military presence in South Korea, which he put at “39,000” but the Pentagon said was actually 26,589 as of the end of March.

South Korea was paying for the US military presence before Trump’s first presidency.

Here’s what Trump claimed Monday: “Just so you understand with South Korea, look: South Korea has been protected by us for many, many years, and during my first term, they agreed to pay close to $3 billion a year for protection, because we don’t – you know, they essentially weren’t paying.” Last year, he explicitly said South Korea’s cost-sharing payments didn’t exist before he became president.

The reality: For decades before Trump took office, South Korea spent substantial sums to share the cost of the US military presence in the country; its cost-sharing “Special Measures Agreements” with the US began in 1991. Under the final five-year agreement signed before Trump became president in 2017, negotiated by the Obama administration, South Korea agreed to spend more than $800 million per year from 2014 through 2018. Trump is entitled to argue that this was insufficient, but it was far from not paying at all.

It’s not true that Trump got South Korea to pay “$3 billion” in any year.

Here’s what Trump claimed Monday: “But we agreed for a short term that it would be $3 billion…” Later in his remarks, he referred to the supposed arrangement as “$3 billion a year” from South Korea.

The reality: Under a one-year Special Measures Agreement negotiated by the Trump administration in 2019, South Korea agreed to an 8.2% increase in its spending – but the new total was still less than $1 billion, not $3 billion.

It’s not true that Trump got South Korea to agree to two subsequent increases.

Here’s what Trump claimed Monday: “But we agreed for a short term that it would be $3 billion, and next year it would go up and the next year it would go up, so that they start paying for their protection.”

The reality: Trump did not secure three years of spending increases. He did achieve the one-year increase for 2019, but negotiations on a post-2019 deal stalled amid Trump’s demands for a massive increase in South Korea’s contribution, and the talks were still unresolved when Biden took office in January 2021.

South Korea did come to a narrower deal with the Trump administration in mid-2020 to spend $200 million that year to pay South Korean employees of US forces, who had been put on leave because Trump’s one-year deal expired at the end of 2019. Clearly, though, that wasn’t two years of spending hikes over the supposed “$3 billion.”

It’s not true that the 2020 election was rigged.

Here’s what Trump claimed Monday: “When the election was rigged and I ended up watching for four years and then coming back…”

The reality: Trump was lying. He lost the 2020 election fair and square to Biden.

It’s not true that Biden agreed to a South Korean demand to rescind Trump’s cost-sharing deal.

Here’s what Trump claimed Monday: “And South Korea, I get along with them very well. But they were paying $3 billion a year and then they convinced Biden that I was probably a bad person and they shouldn’t. And he immediately rescinded that order.”

The reality: Biden did not rescind any Trump cost-sharing agreement with South Korea. The only Special Measures Agreement signed by the Trump administration, the one-year 2019 deal, was dead by the time Biden took office in 2021 – and Biden’s administration proceeded to sign two new agreements, one in 2021 and one in 2024, that both included South Korean spending increases.

The 2021 agreement – which retroactively covered Trump-era 2020 – included a South Korean spending increase of 13.9% in 2021, bringing the level to around $1 billion, then additional increases in 2022 through 2025 tied to increases in South Korea’s defense budget. The 2024 agreement included an 8.3% increase in 2026 and then additional increases from 2027 to 2030 tied to South Korean inflation.

These were smaller hikes than Trump was demanding when he left office in early 2021. But, again, South Korea had not actually agreed to those Trump demands.

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