Exactly. The reason this was bad politics is that it created more pain than was necessary for the desired gain. If Trump wanted leverage in negotiations and to

Exactly. The reason this was bad politics is that it created more pain than was necessary for the desired gain. If Trump wanted leverage in negotiations and to appear strong on immigration... fine. But there are so many ways of accomplishing that that didn't also alienate and piss off an ally to the extent this perp photo shoot did. Hell, the government could have just politely detained them, put out a big splashy press release, then worked with the South Korean embassy to repatriate them. Same benefit, fewer hard feelings. In contrast, as a result now there's going to be much higher government and South Korean domestic pushback on exactly the kind of US investment Trump wants. It's one thing when someone does something distasteful but gets benefit out of going that far. It's another when they do it because they're inept. The only people this excess played well for was Trump's base, and as others pointed out, there are plenty of less trade sensitive immigrant groups that could have been substituted, if that was the goal.