In Seoul, Democratic hopeful Harris sounds a Trumpian note on defense-cost sharing
by Andrew Salmon · The Washington TimesSEOUL, South Korea — Former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris laid out her political vision in Seoul Wednesday — a vision that, rather than being a scathing assault on the Trump administration, was aligned in some ways with the MAGA playbook.
Ms. Harris, the Democrats’ failed 2024 presidential candidate, was in South Korea at the invitation of the Asan Institute, a prominent Seoul think tank, to deliver its annual memorial lecture.
The lecture cut a broad swath, linking geopolitics and U.S. alliances to the race for primacy in global tech and the import of secure supply chains.
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Given the timing — less than three weeks ahead of the U.S. midterms — and the support Ms. Harris has for another presidential bid, Asan got a hot speaker.
She currently leads a crowded field of potential candidates for her party’s 2028 nomination. An Oct. 11 Focaldata/Financial Times survey found 30% of Dems back her — double the numbers of runner-up Gavin Newsom, governor of California, with 15%.
Among Republicans, Vice President J.D. Vance leads Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 38% to 24%.
Ms. Harris declined to be drawn into any talk of White House plans.
“2028, from my perspective, does not matter if we don’t win 2026,” she said, predicting that next month, Democrats would win the House and that the party has “a very good shot at winning the Senate as well.”
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To some surprise among those on hand for Wednesday’s address, Ms. Harris expressed some openness to positions widely branded as MAGA, indicating U.S. politics may not be as polarized as many fear.
Harris-Trump alignments
Ms. Harris did not address border security or illegal immigration — two core pillars of Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again movement — but she did lean into a discussion about the limits of American defense capabilities and the need for allies like South Korea to step up.
“The last few years have shown us: American foreign policy orthodoxies of old are insufficient to meet the challenges we face,” she said.
“Coming out of world wars, and into the Cold War, military might was the primary source of power,” she pointed out. “But now more than ever, economic innovation, markets and minerals, chips and computers, have greater influence.”
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She expressed concern about the frayed state of U.S.-led alliances, of the Global North’s declining influence and of expanding holes in the rules-based international order.
But she also made clear that U.S. allies must man up.
“America must use our leverage,” she said. “It is in our interest to hold our allies accountable for their share of global defense.”
Regarding international economic partnerships, she slammed “punitive tariffs motivated by grievance” — an apparent swing at Mr. Trump’s favored economic weapon. However, she favored “tariffs as a targeted tool.”
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Rather than a deregulated market economy, she suggested protected access to goods and services, lower costs for consumers, and job creation policies, together with a predictable business environment.
The Trump administration is pressuring Japan and South Korea to invest in U.S. industry and infrastructure.
Ms. Harris said, “it is exciting to see the quality and ubiquity of what is happening” in Korean shipyards, adding, “We need to invest in our shipbuilding in the U.S.”
She praised Korean buys into U.S. yards, as well as the quality of South Korea’s semiconductor and electric vehicle sectors, urging, “Keep doing what you are doing.”
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Rather than free marketeering, Ms. Harris said Washington should, “invest in a robust domestic industrial strategy,” and “partner with our allies to build resilience and prevent choke-points and shortages.”
Critics of the Trump administration slam its transactional approach. Ms. Harris was more nuanced.
“In an increasingly transactional world, we must be clear-eyed to pursue our short-term interests while we also pursue long-term, strategic interests,” she said, insisting that Washington must “ensure trade benefits American workers and consumers.”
AI and the climate
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She focused her speech on “major markers of this new era,” which she characterized as “seemingly challenges, but I believe present great opportunities.”
In addition to international economic partnerships, these markers were artificial intelligence and the climate.
“Not since the advent of nuclear weapons has the world faced an existential risk on the scale and complexity of that posed by AI,” she said.
Citing the perils of bioweapons, cyberattacks and out-of-control AI, she made the case for regulatory oversight.
“As some AI experts sound the alarm, others in Washington, D.C., insist the technology companies can police themselves,” she said. “But a challenge of this magnitude demands the government’s engagement, not abdication.”
To enable the establishment of guardrails safeguarding security, privacy and the public interest, she called for an AI development slowdown while oversight, monitoring, transparency, accountability and “emergency safety shut-off” protocols are developed.
China needs to partner in these initiatives, she said.
“America cannot accept a false choice that we either win the AI race or we make AI safe for humanity,” she warned. “We can and must do both.”
On climate, her gap with the Trump administration was wide.
She laid out the risks of non-action on climate change, pointing to environmental disasters striking the Global South. Once again, she stated the primacy of cooperating with China.
America, she noted, is a major innovator of green technologies, but post-Biden, Washington has disincentivized their development and deployment.
“America must reengage with the world on climate policy not only as one of the biggest emitters but also as the birthplace of the solar cell and modern wind turbine … as a pioneer in technologies from nuclear energy to batteries, to fusion and next-generation geothermal,” she argued. “America’s innovative capacity and economic heft are essential to global climate solutions.”
One American attendee’s key takeaway was the correspondence between Ms. Harris’ stated economic policies and those of the administration that replaced the one under which she served.
“She did not disavow tariffs — she said they should not be punitive and U.S. economic leadership should not be reckless - but she definitely called for trade that addresses imbalances,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University.
“She did not entirely disavow some tools of economic statecraft that are associated with the current administration, but she obviously differs in how those tools are applied.”
He gave her kudos for mentioning the authoritarian alignment of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — the so-called CRINK. Seoul prefers to treat North Korea as a standalone issue.
“I think it is more common to discuss that in D.C. — I thought that was notable,” Mr. Easley said. “Many here in Korea don’t see the same level of coordination among those actors.”
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Andrew Salmon
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