Trump Administration officials have repeatedly complained that past administrations have been spending too much money defending Europe from Russia, and called on the U.S. to focus its scarce American military resources in East Asia to deter China. About a year before becoming vice president, JD Vance espoused this view at the 2024 Munich Security Conference: “I think that we should pivot. The United States has to focus more on East Asia. That is going to be the future of American foreign policy for the next 40 years, and Europe has to wake up to that fact.”
Earlier this month, Elbridge Colby, a Vance ally and the Pentagon’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, reaffirmed that the U.S. was focusing on East Asia. Speaking in Manila on August 10, he said that “America is definitely not disengaging from Asia” but “digging in to ensure a favorable balance of power.” Days before Colby spoke, China had conducted military exercises near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea claimed by both Manila and Beijing.
In the last 10 days since Colby spoke, East Asian allies have been shown how little Colby’s words meant. On August 16, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. pulled its last aircraft carrier from the Western Pacific. The USS George Washington headed for the Middle East, where it was expected to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been beset by severe shortages and reports of declining mental health among sailors.
Also on August 16, U.S. President Donald Trump posted a convoluted message to Truth Social announcing the curtailing of joint military exercises with South Korea, claiming that the U.S. ally didn’t help enough in his war with Iran. He cited his “very good relationship” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and echoed Pyongyang’s language that the exercises send a “signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile.”
Trump’s war in Iran has caused the U.S. to pivot from Asia.
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