Bannon Warns Key U.S. Ally Just Pivoted Away From Trump Over Tariffs: ‘Payback Is Gonna Be Bad’

Former Trump White House aide turned podcaster Steve Bannon slammed the White House for not having its eye on South Korea ahead of the country electing left-wing leader Lee Jae-myung, who has signaled frustration over President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

“You heard there at the end about the Korea situation we’ve been covering. The winner got 48 and a half or 49% of the vote. ‘South Korea trusts in end to turmoil with Lee’s sweeping election victory,’ sweeping election victory,” Bannon said, reading and holding up the frontpage headline of the Financial Times.

“And right there, for those in the State Department not paying attention or the White House have not been paying attention to this, they gave two F-Us. Number one, we’re going to take our time on a, you know, we are not going to be the first guys. And we’re going to take our time on a trade deal,” Bannon continued, adding:

President Trump put out another ultimatum, I think last night, or Bessent or Lutnick, hey, we need them all in like immediately. They’re under new ownership in South Korea. And yeah, we’re gonna have, under the table, we got step-by-step better relationships with Beijing. Everybody that was asleep on the watch on this thing, payback is gonna be bad, folks. Gonna be bad. Just one of many things.

Bannon sounding the alarm on South Korea turning toward China and slow-rolling a trade deal on Trump’s tariffs highlights a major failure of Trump’s current foreign policy. South Korea, the world’s 12th largest economy, has long been a key U.S. ally in Asia. South Korea is one of the world’s largest exporters of products targeted by Trump’s tariffs, including automobiles and smartphones.

Watch the clip above.