ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump headed for Asia Friday night for the first time this term, a trip where he’s expected to work on investment deals and peace efforts before meeting face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping to try to deescalate a trade war.
“We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House. “I think we’ll have a good meeting.”
The president will have a long-haul flight that has him arriving in Malaysia on Sunday morning, the first stop of a three-country sprint.
His trip comes as the U.S. government shutdown drags on. Many federal workers are set to miss their first full paycheck this week, there are flight disruptions as already-squeezed air traffic controllers work without pay, and states are confronting the possibility that federal food aid could dry up. As Republicans reject Democratic demands for health care funds, there’s no sign of a break in the impasse, but Trump seems to be continuing on with business as usual, including his foreign trip.
“America is shut down and the President is skipping town,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement Friday night.
Trump’s first stop is at a regional summit in Kuala Lumpur. Trump attended the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit only once during his first term, but this year it comes as Malaysia and the U.S. have been working to address a skirmish between Thailand and Cambodia.
On Sunday, he’s scheduled to have a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, followed by a joint signing ceremony with the prime ministers of Thailand and Cambodia.
Trump threatened earlier this year to withhold trade deals with the countries if they didn’t stop fighting, and his administration has since been working with Malaysia to nail down an expanded ceasefire.
The president credited Ibrahim with working to resolve the conflict.
“I told the leader of Malaysia, who is a very good man, I think I owe you a trip,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.
The U.S. leader on Sunday may also have a significant meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who wants to see the U.S. cut a 40% tariff on Brazilian imports. The U.S. administration has justified the tariffs by citing Brazil’s criminal prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro — a Trump ally.
Beyond trade, Lula on Friday also criticized the U.S. campaign of military strikes off the South American coast in the name of fighting drug trafficking. He said he planned to raise concerns with Trump at a meeting on Sunday in Malaysia. The White House has not yet publicly confirmed the meeting is set to take place.
After Malaysia, Trump has stops in Japan and South Korea
From there, Trump heads to Japan and South Korea, where he’s expected to make progress on talks for at least $900 billion in investments for U.S. factories and other projects that those countries committed to in return for easing Trump’s planned tariff rates down to 15% from 25%.
The trip to Tokyo comes a week after Japan elected its first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi. Trump is set to meet with Takaichi, who is a protégé of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trump was close to Abe, who was assassinated after leaving office.
Trump said Takaichi’s relationship with Abe was “a good sign” and “I look forward to meeting her.”
While there, Trump is expected to be hosted by Japanese Emperor Naruhito, and meet with U.S. troops who are stationed in Japan, according to a senior U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity about the planned trip.
In South Korea, Trump is expected to hold a highly anticipated meeting with China’s Xi on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
While the APEC summit is set to be held in Gyeongju, the Trump-Xi meeting is expected to take place in the city of Busan, according to the U.S. official.
The meeting follows months of volatile moves in a trade war between China and the U.S. that have rattled the global economy.
Trump was infuriated earlier this month after Beijing imposed new export controls on rare earths used in technology and threatened to hike retaliatory tariffs to sky-high levels. He has said he wants China to buy U.S. soybeans. However, earlier this week, Trump was optimistic, predicting he would reach a “fantastic deal” with Xi.
Trump also said he might ask Xi about freeing Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy newspaper founder, saying “it’ll be on my list.”
The only meeting that could possibly eclipse the Xi summit would be an impromptu reunion with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Speculation has been rife since South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told lawmakers this month it was possible that Trump could again meet with Kim in the Demilitarized Zone, as he did in 2019.
But such a meeting is not on the president’s schedule for this trip, according to the U.S. official.
Trump suggested it was hard to reach the North Korean leader.
“They have a lot of nuclear weapons, but not a lot of telephone service,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
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