1.The Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, and the US president, Donald Trump, struck a warm tone at their first meeting on Friday, with Tokyo avoiding tariffs that Trump has slapped on other allies – for now.
2.Heaping praise on each other at the White House, the two leaders pledged to stand together against Chinese “aggression” and said they found a solution for a blocked deal for troubled US Steel.
3.Trump, however, pressed Ishiba to cut the US trade deficit with Japan to zero, and warned that Tokyo could still face tariffs on exported goods if it failed to do so.
4.Ishiba, an avowed “geek” and model warship fan, has been under pressure to replicate Trump’s close relationship with former premier and golf buddy Shinzo Abe.
5.Both leaders insisted they had struck up a rapport during what was only the second visit by a foreign leader of Trump’s new term. “I was so excited to see such a celebrity on television in person,” Ishiba told their joint press conference. “On television he is frightening and has a very strong personality. But when I met with him actually he was very sincere and very powerful.”
6.As they exchanged photographs, Trump praised the 68-year-old Japanese premier as “good looking” – typically one of the former reality TV star’s highest orders of praise.
7.And the US president laughed and said “that’s a very good answer” when Ishiba said he could not respond to a “theoretical question” about whether he would retaliate to any US tariffs.
8.Trump, meanwhile, said that Japan’s Nippon Steel would make a major investment in US Steel but not take over the troubled company as previously negotiated. “They’ll be looking at an investment rather than a purchase,” Trump said. His predecessor, Joe Biden, had blocked the deal.
9.The two leaders also doubled down on decades-old US ties in security and trade – despite fears that Trump could turn on Tokyo as he has with other US allies.
