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.
"Democrats will take aggressive action against China or any other country that tries to undercut American manufacturing by manipulating their currencies and maintaining a misaligned exchange rate with the dollar, dumping products like steel and aluminum in our markets, or providing unfair subsidies. Unlike President Trump, we will stand up to efforts from China and other state actors to steal America’s intellectual property and will demand China and other countries cease and desist from conducting cyber espionage against our companies. And we will take immediate…
"This is a very special occasion. Today, we celebrate the extraordinary economic partnership between our nations and we proudly declare that Pratt Industries and this great, great state of Ohio is open for business. (Applause.) Open for business.
And Pratt has pledged, as I said, to invest many billions of dollars in the United States. It’s okay if you come back to Ohio. You know, you can keep coming back here. Do you — I think we want him back. He’ll do another couple of…
"PRESIDENT TRUMP: Prime Minister Morrison, Mrs. Morrison: Melania and I are immensely honored to host you and the entire Australian delegation for a State Dinner in the historic Rose Garden. I want to thank America’s magnificent First Lady for this truly exquisite evening. Thank you very much to Melania. She worked hard. Thank you. (Applause.) Great job.
Tonight, we celebrate more than a century of loyal and devoted friendship between the United States and Australia. Both of our nations are blessed by the uncommon courage…
"Q Mr. President, will you be asking Australia to do more when it comes to China?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Say it. What?
Q Will you be asking Australia to do more when it comes to China?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re talking about China all the time. And Scott has very strong opinions on China. And I think I’d let him, maybe, express those opinions. Maybe you do it right now. You’re not going to get a better audience than this. (Laughter.)
PRIME MINISTER MORRISON: We —…
"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…
"Vice President Mike Pence spoke by phone last night with Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia Scott Morrison, congratulating him on his Coalition’s win in the Australian Federal elections. He reaffirmed the strong bilateral relationship and enduring alliance between the United States and Australia."