Trump says 'Japan, Australia, South Korea, NATO did not help... We station troops in South Korea for ourselves'

[Financial News]

Donald John Trump on the 6th (local time) again criticized U.S. allies, saying they did not help in the Iran War.
According to Cable News Network (CNN), Trump said at a White House press conference on the Iran War that "Japan did not help us, Australia did not help us, and South Korea did not help us."
He went on, "And then there is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)," adding, "NATO also did not help us."
Trump exaggerated the size of U.S. forces stationed overseas and claimed that the United States is helping these countries.
He asserted, "We have 50,000 troops in Japan to protect them from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and we have 45,000 troops stationed in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un."
The United States Forces Japan (USFJ) is indeed about 50,000 strong, but contrary to Trump’s claim, United States Forces Korea (USFK) is known to have remained at around 28,000 troops.
Trump’s phrase "to protect us" appears to have been a slip, and he likely meant to say "to protect South Korea." It is also possible that his view of U.S. troop deployments as serving American interests surfaced implicitly in his choice of words.

dympna@fnnews.com Song Kyung-jae Reporter