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President Donald Trump told national security advisor H.R. McMaster to remove a $10 billion missile defense system from South Korea and "put it in Portland," according to passages from journalist Bob Woodward's new book Fear.
Newsweek obtained a copy of the book, which contains revelations about operations within the Trump administration that have rocked Washington, D.C. this week, and published a portion of dialogue that shows Trump questioning why the U.S. had placed an expensive defense system in South Korea.
The U.S. positioned a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System to defend the port of Pusan, where American troops would deploy if North Korea started a war on the peninsula. In what Trump allegedly called a "terrible deal," South Korea offered a free 99-year lease for the land where the system sits, as long as the U.S. paid for the defensive weapon and maintained it.
Woodward's book details the encounter: "'It's actually a very good deal for us,' McMaster said when he returned in the afternoon. 'They gave us the land in a 99-year lease for free. But we pay for the system, the installation and the operations.' Trump went wild. 'I want to see where it is going,' he said. Finally, some maps came in that showed the location. Some of the land included a former golf course."
Trump was not impressed, according to the book.
"'This is a piece of shit land,' said the former golf course and real estate developer. 'This is a terrible deal. Who negotiated this deal? What genius? Take it out. I don't want the land.' The major missile defense system might cost $10 billion over 10 years, and it wasn't even physically in the United States, Trump said. 'Fuck it, pull it back and put it in Portland!'"
The THAAD system is still in South Korea.
