The odds were stacked against Lee Jae-myung before he entered the doors of the Oval Office. North Korea continues to ramp up its verbal attacks against the U.S. and South Korea, which could derail Lee’s plans to thaw relationships between the three nations. Although the U.S. and South Korea have reached a trade deal, its details are still up in the air — and it’s left South Koreans uneasy about their economy. To top it all off, just hours before Lee was scheduled to meet with Donald Trump, the U.S. president unexpectedly posted speculation about a “Purge or Revolution” happening in South Korea, leaving the South Korean diplomatic delegation on edge.
Still, the South Korean president, at least publicly, walked away from today’s sit-down unscathed, even charming Trump as they joked about trips together to China and golfing at a North Korean Trump Tower. That, in itself, counts as a win.
Lee’s success adds him to a small but growing list of world leaders — from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to the U.K.’s Keir Starmer — who have mastered the art of wooing Trump as they conduct tense discussions over trade and security deals. Unlike many of the leaders who butted heads with the unpredictable American president during his first administration, heads of state are learning how to butter up Trump — and it begins with shameless flattery.
It’s obvious that Lee did his homework: Before meeting with Trump, Lee said he had read the president’s book “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” implying that its pages contained the key to understanding the U.S. president’s savvy negotiation tactics. Lee’s opening remarks, made it clear he had studied Trump’s familiar — if not stereotypical — topics of interest: golf, building Trump Towers in foreign nations, the gold finishes in the Oval Office, making America Great Again, the stock market, and playing the role of peacemaker.
The flattery was incessant — even overkill, to some Korean onlookers tuning into the meeting at 1:30 a.m. local time. But it’s become customary among foreign leaders in recent months, given Trump's habit of attacking his closest allies if they displease him.
Rutte, who referred to Trump as “daddy” at a recent NATO summit, told Trump that he is “truly extraordinary.” Starmer, who presented a letter from King Charles inviting Trump for a rare second state visit, gushed, “This has never happened before. It's so incredible. It will be historic.” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba managed to spark a broad smile from Trump with his own unique form of adulation. “I was so excited to see such a celebrity on television,” he said, adding that the U.S. president is “very sincere and very powerful.”
Such flattery doesn’t come easy for the most politically powerful person in a nation. Lee, however, is uniquely fit for the job, says Nathan Park, a Korea watcher and non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute. As South Korea’s only president to have climbed up the ranks within local government — first as mayor, then as governor — Lee’s experience made him a pragmatist, ready to say and do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. “He's all about going around town, greasing palms, and just like glad-handing people and getting things done,” Park says.
Lee’s predecessor, Moon Jae-in, the Korean president who helped Trump set up a summit with Kim Jong Un during his first presidency, also had a friendly rapport with the U.S. president. But it’s unlikely Moon would have been willing to lavish Trump with compliments the same way Lee had, Park says. “[Moon] is definitely more of this elevated figure, a scholar/statesman sort of character. That's certainly how he sees himself and how he behaves, whereas Lee Jae-myung is the opposite of that,” Park says. “His claim to fame is like, ‘I'm the guy who comes in and fixes things, sometimes by applying pressure, sometimes by sweet-talking people.’”
It’s not just the ingratiating manner, though, that enabled Lee to emerge from the Oval Office with a smile on his face. Lee’s calculated use of America-first rhetoric helped the South Korean president define his security priorities as a win-win for both countries.
One example was his framing of a pit stop in Japan to meet Ishiba on his way to the U.S. — a meeting he portrayed in the most favorable light for Trump. The visit took Korea watchers by surprise, since historically most South Korean presidents hold their first bilateral meeting with the U.S. president. Analysts widely speculated that Lee and Ishiba were putting historic animosity on the back burner to share notes on their experiences with Trump and coordinate a united front before Lee’s meeting with the U.S. president.
The possible narrative of two neighboring countries bonding to scheme against the U.S. could have easily blown up in Lee’s face. But Lee casually insisted that he was simply helping out the U.S.: “Because I know that President Trump, you put an emphasis on trilateral cooperation, I made a visit to Japan before coming to the U.S. to settle the difficult issues that we have.” His answer pleased Trump, who nodded along as he listened, noting that “I find the [Japanese] people that I deal with to be wonderful people, as I do with you.”
Lee’s ambition is to improve relationships with North Korea, a move that he believes will ultimately make South Korea safer. An equally important goal is to ensure that South Korea isn’t cut out of the deal-making process between the U.S. and North Korea, if that relationship thaws. To inch closer to both of these objectives, Lee emphasized Trump’s role as a global peacemaker, placing South Korea at his side to assist in any way they can. “If you play the role of a 'peacemaker,' I will work hard as a 'pacemaker' to support you,” Lee said.
“Lee stole the show with his remark,” says Karl Friedhoff, an expert in East Asian security at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “That's a really smart line, and a really great way to frame how you get South Korea wedged into this relationship. Because North Korea wants to deal with the United States and the United States wants to deal with North Korea, neither of them really care if South Korea is involved. But if he can frame this as, ‘Yes, you're going to have the bigger success. Allow me to set up the meetings, and we can then judge when these things will take place and at what pace’ — I thought it was a great line.”
The cordial atmosphere of the Oval Office ultimately created an environment where Trump didn’t feel the need to push on thornier questions and humiliate Lee. On the issue of his Truth Social post on “Purge or Revolution” in South Korea — Trump clarified he heard there were raids on churches in Korea, although it’s unclear what he’s referring to. Rather than pick a fight, Trump was quick to admit that it may be a misunderstanding, saying, “It didn’t sound to me like South Korea.” When a reporter asked him if the U.S. was going to pull troops out of Korea, Trump passed on publicly hashing out the controversial issue “because we’re friends.”
After the lunch meeting, Trump confirmed that the 15 percent tariff on South Korean goods remains unchanged and security negotiations are ongoing, a likely disappointment to the South Korean delegation.
But at the end of the day, Trump only had nice things to say about Lee. To Lee’s aides who were likely biting nails just hours before, a pleasant standstill is probably a welcome alternative to the prospect of a Zelenskyy-style public confrontation.
“He is a very good guy, very good representative for South Korea,” Trump said after his lunch with Lee, helping the South Korean save face — for now.
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