Saturday, February 11, 2017

President Trump Is Spoiling Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

First Lady Melania Trump joined the group after spending the week in New York City and joining her husband this morning

Daily Mail: The Supper Bowl! The Trumps, the Japanese prime minister and his wife are joined by New England Patriots owner for dinner at Mar-a-Lago after the First Family fly to Florida on Air Force One

* President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe departed for Mar-a-Lago for a weekend of golf and meetings
* President was reunited with Melania Trump, who sported large sunglasses as she boarded Air Force One
* Daughter Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner also hopped aboard the plane for the trip
* Abe was accompanied by his wife, having lunched with Trump at the White House amid new talk of bilateral trade and infrastructure plans
* President, Melania, the Japanese prime minister and his wife, as well as Robert Kraft, the owner of the Super Bowl winners the New England Patriots, went for dinner

President Donald Trump welcomed the Japanese prime minister and his wife to his ‘winter White House’ in Mar-a-Lago after jetting off for a weekend of ‘golf diplomacy’.

At a dinner on Friday evening at the luxurious resort, President Trump was joined by his wife Melania, Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie as well as Robert Kraft, the owner of the Super Bowl winners the New England Patriots.

The group enjoyed a lively evening as the President revelled in his winner’s circle. Trump hopes to improve the United States’ relationship with Japan.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Foreign policy and international relations are based on two things .... developing a personal relationship and policy issues. I do not where the policy issues are right now .... they are still being debated and formulated by the Trump administration .... but on developing a personal relationship .... President Trump is signalling to the world that friends and allies of the U.S. who are in agreement with his policies will be treated super well (i.e. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife) .... allies who disagree with him (i.e. Malcolm Turnbull of Australia or Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto) .... will get the curt phone call.

3 comments:

B.Poster said...

I wouldn't consider Mexico an "ally." At best, their position toward the United States is somewhere between cold hostility and out and out war with the probably much closer to active war and they need to be treated as such.

Is Australia an ally? Perhaps they are an ally of the country they fought alongside in WWII. Today's United States is not that country. In any event, when Nr. Turnbull made the deal with Barack Obama on the refugees, he had to know this was a bad deal for America. As such, even if Australia is an ally Mr. Turnbull is not. Had he United States tried to impose a similar deal on Australia the media would have howled with rage against America and its leaders yet when bad deals are imposed on America the Americans and their leaders are expected to simply put up, shut up, and take the abuse.

As for Japan, during the campaign DJT indicated that the defense agreement with Japan may need to be renegotiated. Before this we had the following: 1.)BHO paying a visit to Hiroshima, while not an actual apology this can be treated as a de facto apology, the message seems unmistaken, 2.)Shinzo Abe visits Pearl Harbor, same as in the visit to Hiroshima by DJT not a formal apology but the messages of apologies by both sides appear rather obvious, and 3.)the US military cedes large acreage of land back to Okinawa which would make sense only if this is in preparation for a large scale redeployment of US troops.

If this is interconnected as I think it is, this is a good sign. We can FINALLY put Hiroshima and Nagasaki behind us. The guilt Americans feel over this incident is unfathomable to non Americans. Whether or not we should feel guilty about this is another debate entirely, however, the Japanese have used this guilt Americans feel to their advantage in manipulating the Americans to underwrite their defense for so long.

This has created much resentment among Americans. I'm sure having a large contingent of US troops in Japan has created resentment on Japan's side as well toward us. By FINALLY putting this behind us the relationship can be mended and we can hopefully be true allies.

Hopefully over dinner and other meetings this process is being continued. Bottom line: get ready for a nuclear armed Japan and act accordingly. This will happen sooner rather than later. All affected parties need to recognize this and act accordingly. Trying to prevent it would only lead to failure, pain, and heartache by anyone who tries to prevent it.

Jay Farquharson said...

https://img.wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/abe.gif

D.Plowman said...

Robert Kraft? With the Japanese Premier?

That's... odd company.