SSP Video Vault: Neil McCabe at the White House on Trump Putting South Korea On Notice

South Shore Press reporter Stefan Mychajliw spoke with Washington correspondent Neil W. McCabe from inside the White House about tensions between the United States and South Korea and the Trump administration’s use of Cabinet officials at the White House press podium.

Mychajliw: What’s the latest with South Korea?

McCabe: There’s many problems with South Korea. One of them is the fact that their election integrity and the functioning of their democracy is under severe questioning. There’s a former Trump 45 official, an attorney, Morse Tan, who’s being held virtually as a political prisoner because he’s called out election irregularities in South Korea. The United States government can’t get him out. He’s basically under house arrest in South Korea.

Mychajliw: What about the American military presence in South Korea?

McCabe: We have 30,000 troops in South Korea to defend the South Koreans. The president put out a Truth post where he said, “Hey, I asked these guys for help in our conflict with the Iranians.” The South Koreans get a lot of their oil from the Iranians. We don’t, but we’re trying to help them out.

“Hey, South Korea, how about helping us out in this conflict?” And the South Koreans said, “No, thanks.” And so the president’s like, “Okay, well, we’re just not going to take it anymore.”

Mychajliw: What are you hearing about the White House press secretary and Cabinet secretaries?

McCabe: There has not been a Cabinet that has as many very professional, very qualified, on-camera personalities as this Cabinet. In the past, we’ve seen people from the administration take the podium behind me. We saw Rubio do it, we saw Vice President Vance do it. Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, has done it.

I think what we’re going to see is rotating Cabinet secretaries and other administration officials. Other people will be given their audition to try out at the podium. And then we’ll see what happens.

The president loves competition. He really believes that iron sharpens iron. So he loves putting two scorpions in a basket and seeing who comes out. And it’ll be fun for us too.