Asia Matters for America
America Matters for Asia
Explore US-Asia National and Local Connections
An initiative of the East-West Center and Asia Matters for America partners and stakeholders
The 2020 Presidential Candidates on the Indo-Pacific resource highlighted mentions of Indo-Pacific issues by US presidential candidates and nominees in speeches, campaign documents, and debates.
To view statements by President Trump prior to his June 18, 2019 declaration to seek a second term, as well as members of his Cabinet, visit The Trump Administration & US - Indo-Pacific Relations.
"[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] I just had a meeting with the business leaders of South Korea. And these are not only business leaders here, they’re business leaders throughout the world. They are among the greatest businesspeople anywhere in the world. We went through a lot — Lotte, Samsung — so many that are so — Hyundai — so many that are so respected.
And we talked and we had a fairly short meeting, unfortunately. I wish it could have been longer. But these are very, very highly…
"PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. (Applause.) Wow, thank you very much. Please. Thank you very much. That’s so nice. That means you like us. And we like you. And it has been a great period of time for our two countries.
I want to thank you, Ambassador Harris. We put you here recently because we thought it might be a spot where we need somebody with great talent, and you’ve displayed that in our military for many years. We really appreciate it very much. Thank you…
[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] I understand that we may be meeting with Chairman King — Kim. And we’ll find out. We spoke with the people. Kim Jong Un was very receptive. He responded. And so, we’ll see. Because tomorrow we’re going to the DMZ. I said, “While I’m there, I’ll shake his hand.” We get along. There’s been no nuclear tests. There’s been no long-range ballistic tests. Gave us back our hostages, which was great. And a lot of good things are happening over there. [...]
So, with…
"PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, Mr. President. We have had a lot of time together, and we’ve become friends. My trip to Beijing with my family was one of the most incredible of my life. I’ve seen a culture that rarely would you see. Chinese culture is an incredible culture.
I look forward to working with you. As you know, we’ve had a excellent relationship, but we want to do something that will even it up with respect to trade. I think it’s something…
"Q Mr. President, will you meet with Kim Jong Un tomorrow at the DMZ?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I put a — I’ll be going to South Korea. We’re going with President Moon. We were with the President in Japan for a little while, and we spoke. And all I did is put out a feeler if he’d like to meet.
He sent me a very beautiful birthday card. And I just — what I did is — and he — I guess he got my…
"Q Are you going to ask Brazil to take sides in the trade war with China, President?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re going to have a meeting with President Xi of China tomorrow, as you probably have heard. There seems to be a rumor about that, and we are indeed, and we look forward to it. I think it’ll be productive. And who knows? But I think it’ll productive. At a minimum, it will be productive. We’ll see what happens and what comes out of it.
…"Q Mr. President, you talk about “America first” a lot. Do you recognize that, for many of your allies, sometimes it’s seen as “America alone” because it has adverse impacts on countries like Japan and Australia — like on trade, for example?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, well, I think I can say very easily that we’ve been very good to our allies. We work with our allies. We take care of our allies. Generally speaking, I’ve inherited massive trade deficits with our allies. And we even…
"PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much, Shinzo. It’s an honor. And we just left Japan, and now I’m back. (Laughter.) That was a quick trip, and it was a great honor to be your first guest. And meeting the Emperor and the Emperor’s family was, really, a very special thing on behalf of the United States.
And I can say we very much appreciate the courtesies — giving out the World Championship to the great sumo wrestler. (Laughter.) He was — you would not…