Former President Donald Trump was given a royal reception on the start of the week in Japan, the next stop of a five-day Asia trip which he hopes to cap with an deal on a trade war truce with Chinese president Xi Jinping.
The former president, embarking on his longest journey abroad since taking office in January, revealed arrangements with four Southeast Asian countries during the opening phase in Malaysia and is projected to encounter Xi in Seoul on later this week.
The former leader greeted with officials on the airport runway and displayed a few fist pumps, before his helicopter transported him for a picturesque evening excursion of Japan's capital. His official vehicles was afterwards spotted arriving at the Imperial Palace grounds, where he had discussions with Japanese emperor Naruhito.
The former president has obtained a $550-billion investment pledge from the Japanese government in exchange for relief from strict customs taxes.
Japan's freshly installed leader, Sanae Takaichi, is striving to continue to please Trump with promises to acquire US pickup trucks, agricultural products and gas, and declare an deal on vessel manufacturing.
Japan's leader, who became Japan's first female premier in the past seven days, told Trump that bolstering their countries' alliance was her "main objective" in a telephone call on Saturday.
Trump said he was eagerly awaiting encountering the prime minister, a strong supporter of his late friend and golfing partner, previous leader the late prime minister, stating: "In my opinion she's going to be outstanding."
Furthermore, Donald Trump declared he would reject running for the second-in-command position in the 2028 presidential race, an concept some of his adherents have suggested to enable the conservative head to occupy an further tenure in government.
"It would be permissible to do that," Trump said, in an exchange with reporters aboard the official plane.
However, he continued: "I wouldn't do that. I think it's overly clever. Yeah, I would eliminate that option because it's too cute. In my opinion the public wouldn't like that. It's excessively tricky. It would not be - it could not be considered proper."
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