Inside Trump’s ‘America First’ Approach to North Korea

A close associate of former President Donald Trump has gained attention for stating that Trump’s policy towards North Korea was a prime example of his “America First” foreign policy. While the Trump administration collaborated with allies such as South Korea and Japan, it ultimately made decisions that were in the best interest of the United States.

Morgan Ortagus, who served as a spokesperson for the Department of State during the Trump administration, stated in a policy book titled An America First Approach to U.S. National Security published by the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) on the 9th (local time), “The case study that can show how former President Trump’s America First foreign policy works is foreign policy toward North Korea, especially his diplomacy with Kim Jong Un, the General-Secretary of the Workers’ Party of North Korea.”

Ortagus emphasized, “The Trump administration closely collaborated with South Korea and Japan in its approach to North Korea, but it did not give any country a veto over U.S. policy towards North Korea.” She added, “The U.S. listened to the words of then-South Korean President Moon Jae In, but adopted a much harder line against North Korea than Moon wanted. Because President Moon was too willing to make concessions to North Korea, the U.S. deliberately excluded him from the Singapore summit. This is the America First foreign policy in action.”

Ortagus gave credit to the Biden administration for the trilateral Camp David summit between the U.S., South Korea, and Japan. However, she mentioned President Yoon Suk Yeol’s remarks about South Korea’s independent nuclear possession in January last year, saying, “President Yoon’s comments caused panic in Biden’s national security team and led to a crash program to improve relations with South Korea and Japan.”

The book published by the AFPI, classified as a Trump Think Tank, includes 16 co-authors such as former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, and former Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf. Lighthizer, who was mentioned as a candidate for Treasury Secretary in Trump’s second term, argued in the book that the decoupling of the U.S.-China economic relationship is necessary, stating, “Decoupling should start with revoking China’s most favored nation status and imposing high tariffs on Chinese products.”