I have seen nobody claim this, and this may simply be a matter of collateral damage, as Trump has officially approved of the recent openings related to the forthcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea, especially since South Korean President Moon went out of his way to give credit to Trump publicly for this opening, credit Trump publicly accepted. It is probably more that Trump simply is not thinking, but it is also the case that he had previously dissed moves by Moon to follow a more peaceful approach to North Korea.
For anybody who does not know, South Korea is the leading source of washing machines imported into the US, so South Korea will take the largest hit from the recently announced by Trump tariff hike on washing machines. It may have nothing to do with South Korea at all, with the fact that domestic producer Whirlpool being located in politically sensitive Ohio that played a major role, with Dem Sen. Sherrod Brown praising Trump’s move (and the tariff on solar cells probably part of his ongoing effort to help domestic fossil fuels, especially coal).
OTOH, Trump has for some time been railing against the free trade agreement with South Korea, even as South Korea has been under this war threat from North Korea. Trump preferred disgraced former President Park to leftier current President Moon. But aside from his general protectionist MAGA theme, probably the most likely reason Trump has fussed about the Korean agreement rather than some other strictly bilateral ones is that it came about while Obama was president. And we know well that he seems obsessed with undoing every jot and wiggle of anything Obama did. That this would harm a nation his foreign policy actions have been putting under serious threat has not slowed him down much on this, although this washing machine tariff seems to be the first actual move against South Korea economically.
In any case, probably this move was not primarily driven by a desire to punish South Korea for being to wussy soft with North Korea, but it is certainly consistent with such a motive.
Barkley Rosser
“In any case, probably this move was not primarily driven by a desire to punish South Korea…”
Then why do you post such a lengthy piece trying to suggest that it was, even after admitting that you have seen no one else make the claim? I consider the suggestion absurd.
But sir, in the Trump era, absurd is the normal operating mode.
Welcome to AB Mark D.
Whirpool is HQ’d in west. michigan and Whirpools’ plants are in rural areas.
If there is any intent beyond America First, it’s saying thank you to Michigan and the rural manufacturing base.
Also if I recall correctly, LG and samsung assembly a big bulk of their applicances in mexico and vietnam. if someone wanted to passively agressively hurt korea, there are more direct ways.
welcome to AB, SW. First time comments are held in moderation for spam purposes, and not after.
Bill H.,
However I have little doubt that this is how it is being perceived in South Korea. They do not grok Trump’s obsession with overturning all things Obama no matter what.
And Shish Wish, Trump has also already engaged in passive aggressive hostility towards Moon in ROK, by failing to praise him and the nation when going on about how wonderful his pals Abe in Japan and Xi in China, but no mention of Moon or his nation, as well as already declaring he wants to end the Obama-approved bilateral trade deal with ROK, while leaving alone others approved earlier, such as the one with Chile. The South Koreans have come to expect mistreatment from Trump, and he has previously criticized Moon’s moves to open negotiations with Kim, so there is no question they are going to view this as at least partly dealing with the nuclear war issue, not the trivial domestic politics that is probably at the top of Trump’s concerns, and which have dominated discussion by most in the US, with so far no commentators picking up on this just screamingly obvious point, which is being missed because so many of them are also totally taken with the US domestic political aspect of this, as if this was actually the most important thing here, which, sorry, it is not remotely.
Barkley,
The best way out of the N.K. nuclear problem is probably reunification. “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
There are some interesting developments going on regarding this (like marching together in the Olympics.) Hopefully Trump is playing some kind of 3D chess to help this along.
To be pedantic, the expression is ‘jot and tittle’ and is found in King James Version of the Bible Matthew 5:18:
‘For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.’
In William Tindale’s `1526 translation it appears as
‘One iott or one tytle of the lawe shall not scape. ‘
where the origin of jot as the last letter of an alphabet is obvious from the Greek letter iota (also the smallest letter). A tittle refers to an access mark over a letter in classical Latin but later referred to the dot over the letter i.
Lindsay
it’s okay to be pedantic for fun and education, as long as you don’t take it seriously.
i think a writer who wants to write “jot and wiggle” should not be presumed to be ignorant.