Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that President Trump disparaged South Koreans in front of his South Korean-born wife.
While addressing how the President did not help governors secure COVID-19 testing kits, Hogan shared how Trump also openly insulted South Koreans in a private dinner sponsored by the Republicans Governors Association.
Hogan recalled Trump condemning his relations with South Korean President Moon Jae-in during a private dinner held in February.
In the editorial dubbed Fighting Alone published on Thursday, Hogan said, “I don’t remember him [Trump] mentioning the virus, but he talked about how much he respected President Xi Jinping of China; how much he liked playing golf with his buddy ‘Shinzo,’ Prime Minister Abe of Japan; how well he got along with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.”
“Then, the jarring part…Trump said he really didn’t like dealing with President Moon from South Korea. The South Koreans were ‘terrible people,’ he said, and he didn’t know why the United States had been protecting them all these years. ‘They don’t pay us,’ Trump complained.”
According to Korea Herald, Trump was referring to the 28,500 American troops dispatched in South Korea to contain North Korea’s military threat.
Hogan said Trump’s remarks were made in front of his South Korean born wife Yumi.
“Yumi was sitting there as the President hurled insults at her birthplace,” Hogan noted. “I could tell she was hurt and upset.”
This is not the first time Trump allegedly expressed dissatisfaction towards relations with South Korea.
Korea’s Joongang Daily reported Bob Woodward recounted in his 2018 book, Fear: Trump in the White House, that the US President did not have the best ties with Moon Jae-In. Woodward said Trump frequently criticized the trade deficit between the US and South Korea.
Former US national security advisor John Bolton also shared in his memoir, The Room Where it Happened, that “Trump wanted Moon nowhere around” for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jung-un at the demilitarized zone on June 30, 2019.
Hogan’s article came amid Trump’s strike against the governor’s efforts to secure coronavirus test kits from South Korea.
With the help of his South Korean wife Yumi, Hogan received 500,000 test kits from South Korea in April. According to Joongang Daily, Hogan credited his wife as a “special ally” that assisted in making a phone call to the South Korean ambassador to the US, Lee Soo-hyuck on March 28th.
The Hogans’ successful procurement of coronavirus test kits came after Trump declared each state should be responsible for their own COVID-19 testing, according to Independent.
“That request set in motion what we called Operation Enduring Friendship, 22 days of vetting, testing and negotiating an unprecedented set of protocols. Our scientists and doctors spoke to their scientists and doctors,” Hogan wrote in his anecdote. “Eight Maryland government agencies got involved, as did their counterparts in Korea. It took dozens and dozens of phone calls, night after night — sometimes it seemed like all night — working through language barriers and a 13-hour time difference.”
Hogan said he initially expected Trump to applaud the state’s efforts and was shocked when the President publicly condemned the governor’s actions.
Hogan recollected how Trump complained, “The governor from Maryland didn’t really understand [about testing]. The governor of Maryland could’ve called Mike Pence, could’ve saved a lot of money… I don’t think he needed to go to South Korea. I think he needed to get a little knowledge.”
Hogan explained how he had no choice but to reach out to South Korea. “So many nationwide actions could have been taken in those early days but weren’t. While other countries were racing ahead with well-coordinated testing regimes, the Trump administration bungled the effort,” Hogan stressed. “The test used by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention early on was fraught with inaccuracies, and onerous regulations hindered the nation’s private labs. The resulting disorganization would delay mass testing for almost two months and leave the nation largely in the dark as the epidemic spread.”
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