'New neocons' influence Trump as North Korea faces increased risk
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Tucker Carlson / AP-Yonhap
Seoul should turn ambassador nominee into 'second Donald Gregg'
As a rift widens among Republicans over U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, a top Korean American leader said Seoul must recognize that President Donald Trump is heavily influenced by a faction he calls "new neocons."
Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson broke sharply with the president in a Wall Street Journal interview Saturday, calling him a "slave" to hawkish interventionists willing to deploy military force.
Kim Dong-seok, the 68-year-old head of the Korean American Grassroots Conference (KAGC), said South Korea must stop treating Trump's decisions as mere impulses and instead analyze the calculated strategies driving his administration.
Motive and mechanism
Trump is not a traditional isolationist, Kim said during an April 15 interview with Hankook Ilbo in Washington.
Kim Dong-seok, head of the Korean American Grassroots Conference (KAGC), speaks during an interview with Hankook Ilbo at the organization's office in Washington, April 15. Korea Times photo by Kwon Kyung-sung
While the president courted white working-class voters with anti-interventionist rhetoric, strategic lobbyists successfully persuaded him by rebranding military action to fit his "America First" agenda.
They engineered a "destroy-and-deal" strategy, Kim said. This approach relies heavily on drone warfare to bomb targets without committing U.S. ground troops, forcing adversaries into negotiations without risking American casualties.
Financial incentives also drive this approach, Kim said, as drone warfare directly benefits the president's family.
"Drones will likely replenish the stockpiles depleted by a war with Iran, and the people pocketing that money are Trump's two sons," Kim said.
Eric Trump invests in Xtend, an Israeli drone firm holding a Department of Defense contract, while Donald Trump Jr. sits on the board of Unusual Machines, a drone parts startup.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump pose outside the Nasdaq building after ringing the opening bell to celebrate the closing of ALT5's $1.5 billion offering and adoption of its $WLFI Treasury Strategy at the Nasdaq Market, in New York City, on Aug. 13, 2025. Reuters-Yonhap
New neocon architects
Elliott Abrams, the former special envoy for Iran during the first Trump administration, is at the center of the new neocons. Abrams founded the Vandenberg Coalition in 2021 and uses the Heritage Foundation to exert influence.
"Adding regime change in Iran to the administration's war objectives was also the handiwork of the new neocons," Kim said.
The coalition includes White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, along with Sens. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton.
Former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Elliott Abrams / AP-Yonhap
AIPAC model versus diaspora division
To navigate this aggressive environment, Kim said Korean Americans must emulate the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
When the Obama administration shifted U.S. diplomatic focus toward Asia through its "Pivot to Asia" policy, AIPAC rapidly mobilized to maintain its influence, Kim said.
He said the organization pools "small money" — grassroots donations from general members — to cultivate politicians and strategists capable of advancing Israeli interests. This stems from the belief that U.S. power is indispensable until the Jewish state is fully secure.
He added that the group prioritizes national interests over ideological alignment, making it flexible enough to shift political directions. This pragmatism explains why the community supports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite significant ideological differences.
"We must study the strategy and tenacity of the Jewish community, which pushed Trump into a war simply to secure its own national interests," Kim said.
U.S. President Barack Obama, right, and Lee Rosenberg, president of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), wave after Obama arrived to speak at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington March 4, 2012. Reuters-Yonhap
As a cautionary tale, Kim pointed to the 600,000-strong Iranian American community, which remains deeply divided over the recent U.S. airstrikes.
Warning that a similar fracture could devastate the Korean diaspora, he urged progressive and conservative factions to unite for survival.
North Korea risk
Seoul should scrutinize Trump’s path to war, because North Korea could also become a target under the "destroy-and-deal" framework, Kim said. He warned without restraining influences and unconstrained by reelection, the U.S. president is now harder to predict.
"Trump currently has no aides to restrain him and no need to manage public opinion for a reelection bid," Kim said. "He is far more reckless and dangerous now than in his first term."
U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un talk before a meeting in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on June 30, 2019, in Panmunjom, Korea. AFP-Yonhap
Kim also warned that with such unstable leadership, South Korea must prioritize risk management.
"Instead of taking risks to score diplomatic victories on inter-Korean issues, Seoul must focus on risk reduction to preserve stability and peace," he said.
Seoul test
This strategic pragmatism faces an immediate test in Seoul following Trump's April 13 nomination of Michelle Park Steel as U.S. ambassador to South Korea.
Steel is a former U.S. representative and conservative Republican. Both she and Kim entered politics following the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Because of her staunch conservatism, South Korean liberals are pressuring the Lee Jae Myung administration to refuse the host country’s prior diplomatic consent, known as agrément.
U.S. ambassador nominee to South Korea Michelle Park Steel / Korea Times file
However, Kim urged Seoul to leverage the nomination by turning Steel into a second Donald Gregg.
A former CIA officer, Gregg arrived in Seoul in 1989 as a representative backing a military dictatorship but eventually transformed into an ardent supporter of democracy.
Because Steel is the first U.S. ambassador to South Korea since Gregg to hold a direct line to the White House, Kim said Seoul must use her access rather than reject her appointment.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.