Overview

• President Donald Trump hosted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the White House and later downplayed his earlier Truth Social claim of a South Korean “political purge” as a misunderstanding.
• Trump urged a larger annual contribution for the roughly 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea and floated ending a lease to secure the land of a large American base there.
• He said he looks forward to seeing Kim Jong Un, reviving personal diplomacy, while Lee welcomed the prospect and, according to his office, proposed a Trump–Kim meeting this year if Trump travels to South Korea for a regional summit.
• Reporting cited U.S. consideration of reducing or relocating forces in South Korea due to constraints the bases could pose in a China–Taiwan contingency, intensifying alliance burden‑sharing debates.
• The talks unfolded as tensions persisted on the peninsula, including a recent brief North Korean border crossing that drew warning shots, and as Seoul’s politics roiled with a reported warrant for ex–Prime Minister Han Duck Soo.