Trump kicks off a 12-day Asian trip during which North Korea is expected to top the agenda in meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other leaders
US President Donald Trump touched down in Japan on Sunday, kicking off a gruelling and consequential trip to Asia during which he’ll exhort allies and rivals to step up efforts to counter the dangers posed by North Korea’s nuclear threat.
Trump landed at Yokota Air Base on the outskirts of Tokyo, where he’ll begin his trip with an address to American servicemembers.
He’ll then head to a private golf course for an informal lunch and golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“It’s going to be very positive and very historic,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One during the flight from Hawaii.
“It’s gruelling, they tell me, but fortunately that’s historically not been a problem for me. One thing you people will say, that’s not been a problem.”
The 12-day, five-country trip, the longest Asian itinerary for a president in a generation, comes at a precarious moment for Trump. Just days ago, his former campaign chairman was indicted and another adviser pleaded guilty as part of an investigation into possible collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russian officials.
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The trip presents a crucial international test for a president looking to reassure Asian allies worried that his inward-looking “America First” agenda could cede power in the region to China.
They also are rattled by his bellicose rhetoric about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The North’s growing missile arsenal threatens the capitals Trump will visit.
“The trip comes, I would argue, at a very inopportune time for the president. He is under growing domestic vulnerabilities that we all know about, hour to hour,” said Jonathan Pollack, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
