By Philip Yeung
First India, and now South Korea. Trump is at it again, dishing out humiliation to US allies and trading partners alike. With Trump, nothing happens without melodrama. This time, immigration operatives can brag that they have carried out the biggest raid in Homeland Security's history. The target? A South Korean US$4.3 billion car battery plant in Georgia jointly operated by Hyundai and LG. A total of 475 employees were arrested for visa violations, with 300 Koreans given a taste of American hospitality, many of them engineers and specialists essential to its operation. The mass arrests are embarrassing enough. But what stinks more is the ugly treatment meted out to otherwise respectable Korean professionals. They were put in handcuffs, leg shackles, and waist chains—the kind of rough treatment reserved only for terrorists.
The Koreans are knocked off-balance. After all, Trump has invited them to invest and help "reindustrialize" America. The Korean government has been strong-armed into pledging an investment of US$150 billion, with the private sector throwing in another $350 billion in exchange for lighter tariffs at 15%. Instead, Korean investors were kicked in the teeth with their employees manhandled like common criminals.
This brutal treatment is bound to have a chilling effect on future investors. America would have hit the roof if its investors were treated so shabbily in South Korea. The German philosopher Kant had a simple rule for judging behavior: Is it universalizable? Meaning, is the standard universally applicable? Obviously not. Korean investors now face a huge financial risk. Trump had ordered the biggest mass raid dubbed "Operation Low Voltage" for its "high-wattage" media attention. He loves the optics. Hogging the headlines is what he lives for. Besides, he knows he has little to fear from the favor-seeking Koreans.
This is Trump's trademark erratic international behavior. Ten days ago, the South Korean president Lee Jae Myung met Trump at the White House, vowing eternal friendship and closer business ties. But now Trump has thrown him under the bus. This is treacherous behavior. Modi, the Indian prime minister, has been there before. He was chumming around with Trump one day, only to be slapped with a crippling 50% tariff the next. The moral here: Don't bother kissing Trump's ring. It will not translate into friendly or favorable treatment.
It is hard to know whether it is better being Trump's friend or foe. The best option may be being his "feared foe". His two operative words are: power and fear. He only respects raw power. That's why Putin is an unequalled Trump manipulator, for he allegedly holds incriminating "prostitute-peeing tapes" on Trump. If you lack leverage, no amount of ass-kissing will change his behavior. This man is addicted to attention. He needs to feed his ego constantly.
The Korean president is sitting on the horns of a dilemma: If he acts tough, he risks incurring higher tariffs. If he acts soft, the wave of Korean anger may sweep him out of office and cost him his presidency. Face matters to Koreans. A category-5 loss of face may not be politically survivable.
Trump wants his trading partners to invest in US manufacturing. But his border czar promises that more such raids are coming. Will this deter future investments in the US? Given what has just transpired, setting up shop in America is high-risk behavior. What awaits foreign executives may be another dose of unwanted American hospitality: handcuffs, leg shackles, waist chains, and free meals in the prison. Dealing with Trump is a tricky job, much like predicting the weather. You never know which way the Trump wind blows.
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