"Korea’s admiration of the U.S. was always bound to drop somewhat as Korea grew from one of the poorest countries in the world into its 10th-largest economy, says Lee Hyun-song, a professor of interpretation and translation at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies who wrote a 2015 article about Koreans' changing perception of Americans up to the early 2000s. But, he says, Trump’s tenure, and really 2020 in particular, has accelerated that process, especially among younger generations of Koreans, who are expressing more pride for their country and less likely to turn to the U.S. for guidance.'There was a strong belief that there was a lot to learn from the U.S., but then that faith in Americans crumbled after they voted for Trump,' he says. 'As we’ve watched the U.S. fail to contain Covid-19 and rebel against mask-wearing through the media, we’ve come to realize that the U.S. is no longer a more "developed" country than us.'”
Koreans aren't stupid. They will, at decisive moments, be forced to choose between the growing might of China and the apparent decline of the U.S. There is no middle ground available, when China can punish South Korea overnight merely by barring its citizens from visiting Jeju Island.
And they're correct to realize it isn't just Trump, who is a symptom of the cancer in the American body, not a cause. It's the millions of people -- anti-science, anti-alliance, anti-common sense -- who voted for him. (Let's be honest -- anti-reality, frankly.)
It's his supporters who are the deep, intractable problem. They're also loud and clear in their spite -- "America first" means, by definition, long-term allies and alliances get to go "last."
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