Donald Trump is headed home from the Philippines on Tuesday, bringing with him the promise of hundreds of billions of dollars in trade deals and a host of expanded controversies.
His 12-day swing through East Asia was the longest such journey by a U.S. president in 25 years, lasting longer than the tenure of his colorful former communications director, Anthony Scaramucci.
It ends Tuesday with a stop at the East Asia Summit, his second international gathering in Manila.
Trump boasted Monday that he had seed ‘red carpet like nobody, I think, has probably ever received. And that really is a sign of respect – perhaps for me a little bit, but really for our country. And I’m very proud of that.’
‘The way they’ve treated us – the respect that Japan and China and South Korea in particular, because we went there – have treated us has been really a great respect for the people of our country, the people of the United States,’ he said.
During his tour of the Far East he dangled the threat of all-out war against North Korea, toured Beijing’s Forbidden City, golfed with the Japanese prime minister and quizzed Russian President Vladimir Putin on his alleged 2016 U.S. election meddling.
Trump also held his first one-on-one meeting with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, and let him off the hook without pressing him on the hot topic of human rights abuses linked to his bloody drug war.
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Trump’s last stop in Manila, Philippines began with a tradition opening the Association of South East Asian Nations summit – a cross-armed group handshake that the president had a little trouble mastering
Trump met with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday but soft-pedaled his human rights abuses
‘I didn’t meddle’: Trump said that Putin insisted to him in Vietnam that he did not interfere in the U.S. election last year
Trump held a press conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping, emphasizing their mutual ‘firm commitment to achieving de-nuclearization’ of North Korea
The White House has promised to brief the nation this week about sales of military equipment and other goods meant to chip away at America’s massive trade deficits with China and other Asian nations.
Trump’s trip, he tweeted Tuesday, ‘[w]ill lead to FAIR TRADE DEALS, unlike the horror shows from past Administrations.’
‘After my tour of Asia, all Countries dealing with us on TRADE know that the rules have changed. The United States has to be treated fairly and in a reciprocal fashion. The massive TRADE deficits must go down quickly!’ he wrote in a second tweet.
Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing that he doesn’t blame him for maintaining a $347 billion trade advantage last year.
It was ‘past administrations’ that allowed the economic relationship between the two countries to get ‘so far out of kilter,’ he said.
Xi spelled out a friendly U.S. policy, saying that ‘the Pacific Ocean is big enough to accommodate both China and the United States.’
During a ceremony marking what the White House said was $250 billion in new sales agreements for Boeing, General Electric, Qualcomm and other American companies, Trump said: ‘Who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens? I give China great credit.’
The president tweeted Tuesday before leaving the Philippines for home that he had established a new normal on trade with Asian nations, insisting that ‘the horror shows from past Administrations’ are a thing of the past
In a speech to South Korea’s National Assembly on November 8, Trump warned North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un not to tempt fate by threatening the United States with nuclear weapons
‘Today, I hope I speak not only for our countries, but for all civilized nations, when I say to the North: Do not underestimate us. And do not try us,’ Trump said
Trump also charmed the Chinese at a gala in his honor by playing a video of his granddaughter Arabella singing and reciting stories in Mandarin.
‘Hello, Grandpa Xi. Hello, Grandma Peng,’ Arabella said, introducing her 2-minute performance.
The Chinese president said the young girl deserved an ‘A+.’
Hours after leaving China, Trump was singing a different tune, telling a Vietnamese audience that he will not ‘let the United States be taken advantage of anymore’ on trade.
Trump cautiously avoided pointing fingers at Xi by name, but condemned China-like ‘chronic trade abuses’ that ignore World Trade Organization rules and harm U.S. businesses and workers.
‘We must ensure that all play by the rules, which they do not right now,’ he said.
‘Those who do will be our closest economic partners. Those who do not can be certain that the United States will no longer turn a blind eye to violations, cheating, or economic aggression. Those days are over.’
When Trump addresses the nation this week he will also spell out where his administration stands on de-fanging North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, whose nuclear missile ambitions occupied much of the commander-in-chief’s attention last week.
One Trump insider said Monday that the president wants to deliver a prime-time speech on Thursday night.
Trump said last Wednesday in South Korea that the ‘sinister regime’ to the North had become a dangerous menace, and warned Kim not to test his patience.
‘Today, I hope I speak not only for our countries, but for all civilized nations, when I say to the North: Do not underestimate us. And do not try us.’
Addressing a global audience during a speech to South Korea’s National Assembly, he insisted that ‘the world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens it with nuclear devastation.’
The North Korean government fired back, saying Trump had showed he’s itching for all-out Armageddon on the Korean peninsula.
‘Trump, during his visit, laid bare his true nature as destroyer of world peace and stability and begged for a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula,’ the hermit nation’s foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the state news agency.
‘Trump made his conceived attempt yet again to alienate our people from the government,’ he said.
A state dinner in Seoul, South Korea included this dish: ‘Pine mushroom rice in a stone pot accompanied by grilled Hanwoo (Korean beef) rib seasoned with a special sauce made with an exquisite, 360-year-old soy sauce served on a tray’
Protesters were out in force in Seoul last week, with police blockading them as Trump’s motorcade passed
In the Philippines, too, anti-Trump demonstrators hit the streets of Manila near the U.S. embassy while the president met with his Filipino counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte
The president attempted to make a surprise visit to the Korean demilitarized zone but his helicopter’s landing was aborted because of pea-soup fog.
In Japan he played a round of golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and fed fish with him in a koi pond.
During a visit to Emperor Akihito, Trump managed to avoid a repeat of a widely mocked episode eight years ago in which then-president Barack Obama bowed deeply before him.
During his two-city stop in Vietnam, Trump made news by appearing to side with Putin over American intelligence agencies on the politically fraught question of the Russian government’s alleged meddling in the election that vaulted Trump to power.
During a brief conversation with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of an economic summit in Da Nang, Putin flatly denied it all.
‘He said he didn’t meddle. He said he didn’t meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times,’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. ‘I just asked him again.’
‘He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did.’
‘I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it,’ Trump said.
The president brought first lady Melania to Japan, South Korea (shown) and China, and she returned to Washington while he continued to Vietnam and the Philippines
Trump said Friday in Vietnam that he is ‘not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore’ on trade, in a message targeted at Beijing without calling out China by name
Hours later during a press conference in Hanoi, Trump insisted that he is ‘with’ the CIA, NSA, FBI and director of national intelligence, and doesn’t buy Putin’s denials.
‘What he believes is what he believes. What I believe is that we have to get to work,’ Trump said. ‘We have to get to work to solve Syria, to solve North Korea, to solve Ukraine to solve terrorism.’
‘I’m surprised that there’s any conflict on this,’ a frustrated Trump said. ‘What I said there is that I believe he believes that – and that’s very important for somebody to believe. I believe that he feels that he and Russia did not meddle in the election.’
‘As to whether I believe it or not,’ he continued, ‘I’m with our agencies, especially as currently constituted with their leadership. I believe in our intel agencies, our intelligence agencies. I’ve worked with them very strongly.’
Trump had called questions about his campaign’s alleged collusion with Moscow an ‘artificial Democratic hit job’ that ‘gets in the way’ of international diplomacy.
He said ‘people will die because of it’ as tense U.S.-Russia relations make it more difficult to cajole Putin into helping derail North Korea’s rapidly accelerating nuclear program.
‘I call it the “artificial Democrat barrier.” It gets in the way, which is a shame,’ he said.
Trump and Xi watched a Peking opera performance from the Hall of Character Cultivation in the Forbidden City last week
His grand tour of the Forbidden City included Xi Jinping and his wife Madame Peng Liyuan
Trump and Putin shook hands publicly three times during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Da Nang.
The first such moment came when the men were wearing matching blue silk shirts, picked by the Vietnamese government to mark the occasion.
Past years have seen presidents and prime ministers cajoled into donning Chilean ponchos, Indonesian batik shirts and Chinese jackets that looked like ‘Star Trek’ uniforms.
A similar pageant played out in the Philippines on Sunday, with heads of state wearing Barong Tagalogs – embroidered formal shirts – to a welcome ceremony at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.
On Monday, leaders gathered for a ‘family photo,’ observing a tradition that requires them to line up and cross one arm over the other, shaking the opposite hand of the person next to them.
Trump didn’t appear to know how it worked, but gamely laughed and grimaced through awkward moments as they jockeyed for position, figured out what to do with their arms, and executed the handshake.
Trump shook hands with Japanese Emperor Akihito as the two met at the Imperial Palace on Monday, but managed to avoid repeating an embarrassing episode from the previous administration when then-president Obama bowed deeply in 2009
But the bigger news from Manila surrounded Trump’s decision not to press Rodrigo Duterte, his host, about his history of human rights abuses when the two met face-to-face.
The meeting was one of the most anticipated of the summit, with human rights groups pressing Trump to take a tough line on Duterte’s bloody drug war that has claimed thousands of lives.
Duterte, who has spoken highly of Trump, last week said he would tell him to ‘lay off’ if the topic of extrajudicial killings came up.
‘The issue of human rights did not arise. It was not brought up,’ Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque told reporters after the 40-minute meeting.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said afterward that the conversation ‘focused on ISIS, illegal drugs, and trade.’
She said that ‘human rights briefly came up in the context of the Philippines’ fight against illegal drugs,’ but Roque insisted Duterte had broached the subject of the ‘drug menace’ in the Philippines himself.
Trump have a fashion statement in Da Nang, Vietnam when he wore a traditional “ao dai’ silk shirt to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit – a garment chosen by President Tran Dai Quang (center) for 21 world leaders to wear
‘It was President Duterte who brought up with President Trump the drug menace in the Philippines, and the US president appeared sympathetic and did not have any official position on the matter but was merely nodding his head,’ Roque said.
‘There was no mention of human rights. There was no mention of extralegal killings,’ he added in a separate statement to DailyMail.com. ‘There was only a rather lengthy discussion of the Philippine war on drugs with President Duterte doing most of the explaining. Trump seemed to be appreciative of his efforts.’
Amnesty International accuses Philippines police of executing defenseless people and paying assassins to kill drug addicts.
Duterte insists he has never told them to break the law, but said last year that he would be ‘happy to slaughter’ three million addicts.
He has also repeatedly boasted about killing people himself, most recently last Thursday in Da Nang.
‘When I was a teenager, I would go in and out of jail. I’d have rumbles here, rumbles there,’ said Duterte.
‘At the age of 16, I already killed someone. A real person, a rumble, a stabbing. I was just 16 years old. It was just over a look. How much more now that I am president?’
Trump made a point of visiting with American troops in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and ate lunch with American and South Korean troops at a joint air base near Seoul.
First lady Melania Trump also stopped on her way home in Alaska to meet with servicemen and women.
That visit came after solo appearances at the Great Wall of China and the Beijing zoo.
Melania also learned Japanese calligraphy at a Tokyo primary school and held an event promoting girls’ sports.