Trump Begins Asia Tour; Xi Meeting Oct. 30

President Donald Trump departed Washington on Oct. 24 for a week-long Asia tour to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea aimed at securing investment and trade deals and pressing regional peace initiatives. He will attend the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur — including a planned Thailand–Cambodia ceasefire signing — and meet Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, with a possible bilateral with Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva under consideration. He will then visit Tokyo to meet Japan’s prime minister and travel to Seoul for APEC, with a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for Oct. 30 to try to de‑escalate the U.S.–China trade confrontation. U.S. officials are pushing talks that could include cutting tariffs in exchange for up to $900 billion in Japanese and Korean investments, and U.S.–China consultations have already begun in Kuala Lumpur; Washington has also threatened new levies and export restrictions on China. Trump said he would subsidize farmers if a China deal is not reached and remains open to meeting North Korea’s Kim Jong‑un, calling North Korea “sort of a nuclear power,” while the trip coincides with a U.S. government shutdown that is disrupting federal pay and some air traffic operations.