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The president arrived in Japan on Monday on the second stop of a diplomatic tour with trade at the top of his agenda.
President Donald Trump alights from Air Force One upon arrival at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Monday. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP – Getty Images
As Japan tries to placate Trump amid contentious trade talks, officials may be eyeing an icon of American manufacturing that has virtually no presence there: the Ford F-150 pickup truck.
Trump, who is visiting the key U.S. ally this week, has long criticized the lack of American vehicles sold in Japan, citing what he believes are nontariff barriers.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth left Washington early this morning on a trip that will take him to Hawaii, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam and South Korea.
The Pentagon said a key theme of the trip would be “the importance of allies stepping up their defense spending and contributions to our collective defense.”
In Malaysia, Hegseth will participate in a meeting starting Thursday of defense ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, while in South Korea he will co-chair annual security talks with the key U.S. ally on Nov. 4.
A group of Chinese H-6K bombers recently flew near Taiwan to practice “confrontation drills,” Chinese state media reported late yesterday, publicizing the action just a few days before the U.S. and Chinese presidents are due to meet in South Korea.
The Taiwanese Defense Ministry denounced the report as a propaganda ploy.
Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, sends its combat aircraft and warships into the skies and waters around the island on a daily basis, though the Taiwanese Defense Ministry has not reported any unusual activity lately.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said his team is “down to five” candidates for the next Fed chair and plans to present the list to Trump in the next several weeks.
“We’re going to do a second round, and we hope to present a good slate to the president right after Thanksgiving. It’ll ultimately be his choice,” Bessent told reporters during the president’s trip to Asia.
Trump chimed in, saying, “I’m thinking about him for Fed. What do you think?”
The president added that he is “thinking about Marco, I’m thinking about Jamieson,” referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
When a reporter asked whether he was considering Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff for policy, Trump responded, “How about Stephen Miller? We have a lot of candidates that want the job.”
Trump said he might pick the candidate by the end of the year.
Trump had warm words for Japan’s Sanae Takaichi, whom he is meeting in Tokyo tomorrow only a week after she became prime minister of the key U.S. ally.
Sanae Takaichi on Oct. 4. Kim Kyung-Hoon / Getty Images
Takaichi, 64, a hard-line conservative and the first female prime minister of Japan, was a protege of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was close with Trump.
“I hear phenomenal things,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One today en route from Malaysia to Japan. “She was a great ally and friend of Shinzo Abe, who was my friend.”
“I know they were very close and I think philosophically they were close, which is good,” he added. “That really helps Japan and the United States, I think she’s going to be great.”
Takaichi, who had a phone call with Trump over the weekend while he was flying to Asia, told reporters she “received very warm congratulatory remarks” and that she told Trump that strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance was her top diplomatic and security priority.
She said she praised Trump for brokering the recent Gaza ceasefire, while emphasizing that Japan “is a very important country for the United States for its strategy towards China” and the broader region.
“I thought he was a very cheerful and fun person,” Takaichi said. “He also recognized me well, and while sharing memories of Prime Minister Abe, he mentioned that he knew I was a politician whom Prime Minister Abe had really looked after.”
She said she also thanked Trump for the “great kindness” he has shown Abe’s wife, Akie Abe, whom Trump is expected to see while in Japan.
Trump congratulated Argentina’s President Javier Milei on his party’s victory in midterm elections yesterday, saying he had “a lot of help” from the U.S.
Argentina's President Javier Milei celebrates after winning in legislative midterm elections in Buenos Aires yesterday. Rodrigo Abd / AP Photo
Trump, whose administration has come under heavy domestic criticism over a U.S. bailout for Argentina that could be worth $40 billion, had suggested his support was conditional on a victory for his ally Milei.
“He had a lot of help from us,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One today en route from Malaysia to Japan. “I gave him an endorsement, a very strong endorsement.”
U.S. presidents do not typically express opinions on candidates in other countries’ democratic elections.
Milei had been struggling to maintain public support amid massive budget cuts and austerity programs meant to slow inflation, but managed to secure the election by winning in key districts.
The nation’s largest union representing federal workers is calling for lawmakers to pass a short-term spending measure to end the government shutdown immediately, urging Democrats to abandon their current position and join Republicans in supporting a stopgap solution.
“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley wrote in a statement first shared with NBC News. “It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.”
The new statement from AFGE could put increased pressure on Democrats to budge from their current stance. Senate Democrats have insisted that they will not vote to reopen the government without a commitment from Republicans and Trump on extending health care subsidies through the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of the year. Without them, health insurance premiums on Obamacare markets will skyrocket for many individuals and families.
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Ottawa is ready to sit down with the United States as soon as the U.S. is ready to do so, Reuters reported, amid fresh trade tensions between the two longtime allies.
Carney, who is in Malaysia for the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said he had not had any contact with Trump since Thursday, when Trump said he was terminating trade talks after the province of Ontario started airing a TV ad in the U.S. that featured edited clips from a 1987 address by President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs.
Trump said Saturday that he would impose an additional 10% tariff on Canadian goods imports over the ad after it aired during the World Series, calling it a “serious misrepresentation of the facts” and a “hostile act.”
The White House has not said when the 10% tariff increase would come into effect or whether it would apply to all Canadian goods. Most Canadian exports to the U.S. are exempt from tariffs because of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that was signed during Trump’s first term, but Canada is currently subject to a 35% tariff on goods not covered by the agreement, as well as sector-specific tariffs of 50% on steel and aluminum.
Trump said he would consider extending his Asia trip to add a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, even as South Korean officials expressed doubt that it would happen.
“I’d love to meet with him, if he’d like to meet,” said Trump, who had three in-person meetings with Kim during his first term. “I got along great with Kim Jong Un. I liked him, he liked me.”
Asked if he would be willing to extend his stay in South Korea to add a Kim meeting to his schedule, Trump told reporters, “It’s our last stop, so it’s pretty easy to do.”
President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2019. Susan Walsh / AP file
Trump and Kim last met in 2019 at the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily fortified buffer between North Korea and South Korea, after earlier nuclear talks collapsed amid disagreements over U.S.-led sanctions on the isolated state. Though Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in resuming diplomacy with Kim, the North Korean leader has only further strengthened his weapons programs since Trump’s first term and now says he will negotiate only if the U.S. recognizes North Korea as a nuclear power.
Oh Hyun-joo, a deputy director of South Korea’s national security office, said earlier today that Seoul viewed the likelihood of a Trump-Kim meeting as “very low.”
However, there is “a chance that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could still change his mind and accept the U.S. proposal,” she said.
Emperor Naruhito smiled and waved as Trump’s motorcade pulled up to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
President Donald Trump and Japanese Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo today. Issei Kato / Getty Images
Trump, dressed in a navy suit and gold tie, warmly greeted Naruhito, 65, whom he last saw in Japan in 2019. They shook hands and exchanged pleasantries that were largely inaudible, then posed for a photo before going inside.
Trump said yesterday that he will solve the Afghanistan-Pakistan crisis “very quickly,” as peace talks between the warring neighbors entered a second day.
The two countries are embroiled in a bitter security dispute, with each side saying they were responding to aggression from the other during clashes earlier this month.
Taliban security personnel in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar, after the cross-border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sanaullah Seiam / AFP via Getty Images
It was the deadliest fighting between them in several years, marking a low point in relations while also causing alarm in a region where armed groups like Al Qaeda are trying to resurface.
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Trump said the U.S. and China will “come away with” a trade deal as he prepares to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for President Xi and I think we’re going to come away with a deal,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route from Malaysia to Japan.
He said he was hopeful following what he described as productive preliminary talks between U.S. and Chinese trade delegations in recent days.
According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was also on the plane, the two sides discussed tariffs, trade, fentanyl, rare earth export controls and a substantial purchase of U.S. agricultural products during the latest round of talks in Malaysia.
“We feel good,” Trump added.
Trump also said he hoped to finalize a deal on TikTok during his meeting with Xi.
Trump appeared to rule out the idea of pursuing a third term through a possible scenario in which Vice President JD Vance would run for office and if elected hand over power to Trump as his vice president.
“I think the people wouldn’t like that,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route from Malaysia to Japan. “It’s too cute. It’s not, it wouldn’t be right.”
The president was responding to a reporter’s question about his former top aide Steve Bannon’s recent comment on the existence of a plan for Trump to run for a third term.
“I haven’t really thought about it,” Trump said. “We have some very good people, as you know, but I’ve had the best poll numbers I’ve ever had.”
The president then namechecked two prominent members of his Cabinet, calling them virtually unbeatable if they were to pursue a ticket together.
“Obviously the vice president is great. Marco is great,” Trump said, referring to his secretary of state. “I’m not sure if anybody would run against those. So I think if they performed [as] a group, it would be unstoppable.”
Trump has previously acknowledged that such a scenario — with Vance running and then ceding power — is one way in which he could return to office in 2028.
Steve Bannon, a close Trump ally, recently floated the idea publicly, saying he believes Trump will “run and win again in 2028.”
Trump arrived at Tokyo Haneda Airport around 5 p.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) after a six-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
In Japan, a key U.S. ally, Trump will first meet in the evening with Emperor Naruhito — six years after they met in 2019, when Trump and first lady Melania Trump were state guests of the emperor shortly after he came to the throne.
President Donald Trump arrives in Tokyo today. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP – Getty Images
Tomorrow, Trump meets with newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, followed by a speech aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier anchored in Japan and a dinner with business leaders. He leaves for South Korea, his final stop, on Wednesday.
In Malaysia, Trump attended the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and presided over a signing ceremony for an enhanced ceasefire agreement that he helped mediate between Thailand and Cambodia, who fought a deadly border conflict in July. He also signed deals on trade and critical minerals with Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to reach a deal to avert a new 100% U.S. tariff on Chinese goods and are likely to meet in person soon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said following talks with Beijing’s top trade negotiator.
Bessent told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in an interview yesterday that China was ready to make a deal “after two days of negotiations” in Malaysia, where Trump began his three-country Asia tour.
A “framework” is ready for a meeting this week between Trump and Xi that is intended to avoid the harsher tariffs threatened by Trump starting Nov. 1 should Beijing move forward with plans to put restrictions on rare earth minerals, he said.
The development could mark a potentially pivotal moment in global trade relations as the world’s two largest economies edge toward easing tensions that have unsettled markets and strained diplomatic ties since Trump’s tariff threats began.
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President Donald Trump kicked off his trip to Asia yesterday by presiding over the signing of an enhanced ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia that he helped mediate earlier this year.
The five-day border conflict between the two Southeast Asian neighbors in July killed dozens of people and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians in both countries.
The leaders of Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia were onstage with Trump for the signing of the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords, named after the Malaysian capital where negotiations took place in July.
Standing before a backdrop that read “Delivering Peace,” Trump said the Thailand-Cambodia conflict was one of eight wars his administration had brought to a close since he took office in January. “On behalf of the United States, I’m proud to help settle this conflict and forge a future for the region,” he said.
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NBC News