The president is back stateside after a whirlwind week in Asia, with meetings with multiple foreign leaders and an albeit fragile trade deal with China on the table. Here are the five things you need to know about President Trump’s week overseas.
U.S.-China Trade Relations are Stable, For Now…
After a high-stakes meeting Thursday between President Trump and China’s Xi Jinping, the president announced duties on U.S. exports to China would be lowered from 57% to 47%. He also said China would resume buying soybeans from the U.S. and take off the extra limits it had put on rare earth exports. This agreement is set to hold for a year.
This deal isn’t finalized…
While the president did lay out what he and Xi discussed, Trump also told reporters, “It was an outstanding group of decisions I think that was made…There wasn’t too much left out there.” What was left on the table remains to be seen.
The president has said he is meeting with Xi in China in April and there will be another meeting in either Florida or Washington after that.
For Trump, Diplomacy is About Flattery
Unlike with past administrations, world leaders know that to win President Trump’s favor, they need to cater to President Trump himself. That means visiting the White House, and in turn, when Trump comes to your country, placating on some level to his desires. Trump was greeted with 100 dancers in Malaysia, his first stop. New Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she will nominate Trump for the Nobel peace prize and also gave him late Prime Minister Abe’s golf clubs.
Trump the Peacemaker in Chief?
While the president loves being known as the “Dealmaker in Chief” he also wants to be known as a peacemaker, like the signing of the albeit fragile peace deal between Israel and Hamas. At his first stop in Malaysia, Trump presided over the signing of a peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand, after a border dispute reignited earlier this year. He also alluded to a possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which ended up not coming to fruition.
These international diplomatic relations come as he renames the Department of Defense the Department of War, deploys the National Guard to cities across the county, and protests are ignited due to the recent surge in ICE detainments.
Deals Abroad While the Government Hits Longest Shutdown at Home
As President Trump traveled through Asia having some important trade discussions with Japan and China, stateside, Congress remained at a standstill. Today, the shutdown officially becomes the longest in history, at 35 days; the previous record was 34 days during the 2018-2019 shutdown, during the previous Trump Administration. So the question becomes, if he can make these trade deals abroad, can he make one at home at reopen the government?