My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and I am now a writer who has published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                        Sadly, in the United States, current U.S. President Donald Trump is consolidating power and in fact, from what I can see, has no clue what is happening in South Korea. He seems to be focused on trying to make enemies of Mexico and Canada, America's two reliable neighbors, and he seems to want to get into fights with the American press. Worse, he is trying to pick a fight with China, and this will in fact only aid in China making Trump look like a warmonger. This will also help the South Korean political left make Trump look like a warmonger and an unreliable person. I can only hope that former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert, can explain the delicate situation to Mr. Trump. He may not be able to, and considering Trump's brash and unpredictable behavior, he may do little to nothing to help those pro-American forces in South Korea. In President Trump the South Korean political left has the best "arch-villain" that they could ever want. In the eyes of many people in Asia, Trump is the ugly American, and a perfect target for political cartoons, critical articles, and propaganda. Part of the effort at consolidating power is making sure that the other side does not get a chance to act and counter your moves. This is what is happening in South Korea now---the political left taking the reigns of power gradually while trying to deny the conservatives, rightists and others the chance to stop them and making the other side look as bad as possible (even if not true).