Trump to set off on Asia journey
Starting in Hawaii, president will go on his longest trip yet
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump leaves Friday on his first official visit to Asia — a 12-day journey that starts in Hawaii and will take him and his entourage to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. It will be his fourth trip abroad and the longest to date.
Trump will hit the links with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, skip the DMZ in South Korea but address the National Assembly, enjoy a state visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping and attend conferences with Asian leaders in Vietnam and the Philippines.
He also will venture into diplomatic territory, unhindered by his own role in undercutting his team. Last month, Trump tweeted, “I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful secretary of state, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” as Tillerson was trying to work with Beijing to turn up the heat on North Korea.
The trip comes at a dicey time for the Trump administration on the domestic front.
Special counsel Robert Mueller on Monday indicted Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, two GOP campaign consultants who worked in Trump’s 2016 camp. A member of a campaign national security advisory panel also pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russian operatives.
‘Very distracting to the president’
Chief of staff John Kelly told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, the probe is “very distracting to the president, as it would be to any citizen.”
House Republicans on Thursday released a framework for the president’s promised tax cut plan. Trump said he wants the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to reach his desk “by Thanksgiving if possible.” It won’t be an easy road, even with the GOP’S control of both houses of Congress.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and economic adviser Gary Cohn will skip the trip so that they can keep the heat on Congress.
On the world stage, the international community is holding its
breath to see if Trump can wrangle the support he’ll need to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Since Trump took the oath of office, he and North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un have baited one another in a war of words. Trump has called Kim “Little Rocket Man”; Kim countered by calling Trump “a mentally deranged U.S. dotard.”
The Hermit Kingdom’s saber-rattling also hit a scary pitch in September after Kim conducted a sixth nuclear test and launched a ballistic missile over Japan.
Ellen Tauscher, an undersecretary of state under former President Barack Obama, said she believes this is the wrong time to visit the volatile region and hopes Trump refrains from any posturing.
“I’m looking for temperance and a sense that the president understands that this is a very volatile area made more volatile by his intemperance and his tweets and his bullying,” she said. “The region is going to want a lot of reassurance.”
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster rejected the suggestion that Trump’s language is inflammatory. “What’s inflammatory is the North Korean regime,” he said.
At a press briefing Thursday, Mcmaster said that world leaders no longer see North Korea as a threat mainly to the United States — they see Kim as a threat to all nations.
Trump has appealed to China to cut off resources to its dependent neighbor. Beijing responded by voting in favor of U.N. sanctions that cut off oil and textile imports. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley hailed the vote as a tough measure that could prompt change from an “outlaw regime.”
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reivewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @Debrajsaunders on Twitter.