HABERMAN: I wanted to ask you about some things that you said in Washington on Monday, more recently. But you’ve talked about them a bunch. So, you have said on several occasions that you want Japan and South Korea to pay more for their own defense. You’ve been saying versions of that about Japan for 30 years. Would you object if they got their own nuclear arsenal, given the threat that they face from North Korea and China?
TRUMP: Well, you know, at some point, there is going to be a point at which we just can’t do this anymore. And, I know the upsides and the downsides. But right now we’re protecting, we’re basically protecting Japan, and we are, every time North Korea raises its head, you know, we get calls from Japan and we get calls from everybody else, and “Do something.” And there’ll be a point at which we’re just not going to be able to do it anymore. Now, does that mean nuclear? It could mean nuclear. It’s a very scary nuclear world. Biggest problem, to me, in the world, is nuclear, and proliferation. At the same time, you know, we’re a country that doesn’t have money. You know, when we did these deals, we were a rich country. We’re not a rich country. We were a rich country with a very strong military and tremendous capability in so many ways. We’re not anymore. We have a military that’s severely depleted. We have nuclear arsenals which are in very terrible shape. They don’t even know if they work. We’re not the same country, Maggie and David, I mean, I think you would both agree.
As a result, the price of nonproliferation in East Asia is America’s willingness to risk Los Angeles to protect Seoul and Tokyo, and maybe Taipei and Canberra too. Nonproliferation has turned out a lot like domestic gun control: only the bad guys get guns. In China, Russia, and North Korea are the nuclear powers. America is supposed to provide geopolitical balance.
And while there was good reason to oppose President Park Chung-hee, a dictator in charge of a still poor and unstable Republic of Korea, the same objections do not apply to his daughter and the much wealthier democracy she leads. While few might have been inclined to trust Japan just two or three decades after World War II, now more than seventy years have passed. Surely Tokyo is far more trustworthy than well-armed Beijing.
Thus, the question is what approach is likely to most promote stability in Northeast Asia and least risk to U.S. security. So far, America’s defense promises have not caused China’s dragon or Russia’s bear to lie down with the lamb. China is acting aggressively toward Japan, Philippines, and Vietnam in particular; Russia continues to challenges the United States. North Korea is worse, constantly breathing fire against its neighbors and the United States.
