Trump arrives in Tokyo to meet with new Japanese PM who is expected to gift him a gold golf ball

President Donald Trump touched down in Tokyo on Monday, where he will meet with the country’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, then flew to South Korea for a high-stakes meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The two leaders are expected to get along well, as Takaichi is a protégé of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a friend of Trump’s who was assassinated in 2022.

Takaichi is the first woman to hold this position in Japanese history.

japanese media He said Takaichi was ready to gift Trump a golden golf ball and the clubs used by Abe.

‘I am looking forward to meeting the new prime minister. “He was a great ally and friend of Abe, who is my friend,” Trump told reporters Monday aboard Air Force One flying between Malaysia and Japan. ‘He was one of the best.’

“I know they are very close, and I think they are close philosophically, which is very good,” the president added, because both Abe and Takaichi were politically conservative.

In the same breath, Trump gave the following signal: He was still angry about an advertising campaign criticizing Canada’s tariff policy, and suggested he would snub Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the APEC summit when he reached his next stop, South Korea.

He also kept open the door to another face-to-face meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, a relationship that has soured since the first Trump administration.

President Donald Trump stepped off Air Force One in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday evening

President Donald Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Tokyo, Japan.

“I didn’t mention it, I didn’t say anything, but I would love to meet with him if he wanted to meet,” Trump said. ‘If he wants to meet, I’ll be in South Korea.’

The president even said he would extend his trip to Asia, which was expected to end Thursday, if Kim agreed to a meeting.

“Well, I never thought about that… I think the answer would be yes,” Trump replied. ‘This is our last stop, so it’s pretty easy to do. ‘I was going to meet him.’

Trump set foot in North Korea in June 2019 when he met Kim at the DMZ.

But as of now, Trump’s most important meeting during his Asia trip will be with Xi.

Officials from the US and China signaled over the weekend that a possible end to the trade war is near with a potential deal that would prevent dangerous fentanyl supplies from coming to the US

Beijing will also reduce barriers to US access to rare earth minerals, while purchasing ‘significant’ amounts of US soybeans and other agricultural products.

‘We had a very good meeting,’ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said aboard Air Force One.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will meet President Donald Trump in Tokyo on Tuesday, and Japanese media reported that he is expected to gift him a golden golf ball and golf clubs that belonged to late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (left) spoke to reporters alongside President Donald Trump (right) during a flight between Malaysia and Japan on Monday and gave updates on the developing China trade deal.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt caught President Donald Trump joking with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Tokyo, Japan, on Monday.

“But nothing has been agreed upon yet,” Trump warned. ‘But we feel fine.’

The meeting with Xi is expected to take place on Thursday, just before the president returns to the United States.

The president also said they could ‘finalize’ the TikTok deal during his meeting with the Chinese leader.

‘So we got an original confirmation from President Xi. “I’m hoping to get a confirmation, but I’d rather wait a few days to let you know,” he said.

The president kicked off his three-nation Asian tour with Trump-style flair on Sunday morning, performing his trademark fist-pumping dance alongside local dancers when he arrived in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

Traditionally, he performs these moves to the song YMCA by the Village People.

Trump’s allies applauded when a dancing video shot by the president’s longtime aide Margo Martin went viral.

At the ASEAN summit, Trump announced the completion of trade agreements with Malaysia and Cambodia and said progress was being made on completing two more trade agreements with Vietnam and Thailand.

President Donald Trump was greeted by U.S. Ambassador George Glass (second from left) and other U.S. officials at Tokyo Haneda Airport on Monday evening.

President Donald Trump departed for Marine One after arriving in Tokyo on Monday evening. Will fly to the Imperial Palace to meet the Emperor of Japan

President Donald Trump is seen riding the Beast to the Imperial Palace after landing in Tokyo, Japan

The Imperial Palace was taken from President Donald Trump’s motorcade, which arrived in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday evening. Trump’s first meeting was with the Emperor of Japan

Trump also donned his pacifist hat by attending the signing ceremony of an enhanced ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia following a brief border conflict in July.

On the sidelines of the summit, Trump also met with Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and said that the talks were going well and expressed his confidence that the USA and Brazil could also sign a trade agreement.

The president had threatened to increase tariffs on Brazil over the country’s investigation into former President Jair Bolsonaro, a political ally of Trump who was sentenced to prison for plotting a coup.

On Air Force One en route to Tokyo, Trump said his meeting with Lula had been “very good” but added: “I don’t know if anything will happen, but we’ll see.”

He also wished the Brazilian leader a happy birthday.

‘I want to wish the president a happy birthday, okay? Today is his birthday. “He’s actually a very energetic guy and he was very impressive, but today is his birthday, happy birthday,” Trump said.

Trump made harsher statements towards Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who will go to South Korea for the APEC conference.

‘I don’t want to meet him, no. “I won’t be meeting with him for a while,” Trump told reporters on his way to Tokyo.

The president was furious about an ad campaign spearheaded by Ontario Premier Doug Ford that quoted the late Republican Ronald Reagan’s warning about taxes.

‘Ronald Reagan loved tariffs. “He used them sparingly, he probably made a mistake in that, and again, I was Ronald Reagan’s biggest fan, but that wasn’t his strong suit on finance and trade,” Trump said. ‘But he liked tariffs and they completely changed it to say he didn’t.’

The president also claimed that ‘Canada has been ripping us off for a long time.’

Trump’s visit to Asia represents his sixth foreign trip since returning to the White House.

In April, he traveled to Rome with First Lady Melania Trump for Pope Francis’ funeral, and a few weeks later visited three countries in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Trump traveled to Canada for the G7 in June and cut short the trip because of the brief war between Israel and Iran.

He and his wife then took part in the historic second royal state visit to the United Kingdom in September and were welcomed by King Charles at historic Windsor Castle.

Earlier this month, he flew to Israel and Egypt to sign a peace agreement to end the war in Gaza.