ANALYSIS — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba seemed to know just what to say, and not say, during a joint news conference Friday with President Donald Trump.
Asked whether his government would retaliate if the U.S. president slaps tariffs on goods made in Japan, Ishiba told a reporter at the White House that he could not respond to a hypothetical scenario.
“That’s a very good answer,” a smiling Trump shot back. “That’s very good. He knows exactly what he’s doing.”
So good, in fact, that Trump decided it was the perfect punctuation to Ishiba’s first visit to Washington as prime minister. “Thank you very much, everybody,” he said, ending the news conference and dismissing the American and Japanese journalists assembled in the East Room.
Moments earlier, Ishiba had claimed, through a translator, that he wasn’t trying to “suck up” to the often-brash U.S. president — but, like previous Japanese leaders, he laid the praise on thick.
“For many, many years, I have watched him on television. … I was so excited to see such a celebrity on television, to see in person,” he said as Trump looked on, smiling. “On television, he is frightening and he has a very strong personality. But when I met with him [Friday], actually he was very sincere and very powerful and with a strong will for the United States, as for the whole world.”
Here are three takeaways from the visit by the Japanese prime minister, the second world leader to meet Trump at the White House this week.
DOGE day afternoon
U.S. reporters used several of their questions Friday to ask about the Department of Government Efficiency effort, run by the world’s richest man and presidential adviser, Elon Musk. Earlier, Trump sidestepped a question in the Oval Office about TIME magazine putting Musk on its cover this week seated behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
During the joint news conference, Trump predicted that DOGE likely will produce around $1 trillion in federal spending reductions.
He said he had instructed Musk, who this week appeared largely focused on shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development, to turn his future efforts to the Education and Defense departments. Many Republicans have long wanted to shutter the former, but Trump could find ample resistance on cuts to the latter — especially from hawkish GOP lawmakers and the country’s influential defense industry sector, which has scattered jobs on weapons platforms across states and congressional districts from sea to shining sea.
About DOGE’s coming review of the Pentagon, Trump predicted that “sadly, you’ll find some things that are pretty bad,” but he added that it wouldn’t “proportionally” be anything like the Musk team’s gutting of USAID.
Amid reports of Trump’s and his inner circle’s frustrations with Musk, the president described how the DOGE operation works: “While we haven’t discussed that much, I tell him to go here, go there. He does it.”
Nippon next
A proposed $14.9 billion transaction that would see Japan-based Nippon purchase U.S. Steel could be officially dead. Former President Joe Biden blocked the planned acquisition on his way out of office, prompting ongoing litigation.
After his top spokeswoman earlier this week declared him “the best deal-maker on the planet,” Trump on Friday endorsed a proposal by Nippon to “invest heavily in, rather than own” U.S. Steel. He said he would “help” in talks to that end, saying he would be available to “mediate and arbitrate.” The prospect of U.S. Steel becoming a non-American company was “psychologically not good,” he added.
Team Trump has been hearing from Republicans in Congress — including those from Indiana, where Nippon has proposed investing $950 million to upgrade the facilities and gearing at U.S. Steel’s hub steel mill in Gary and possibly revive a dormant tin mill there.
Indiana GOP Sen. Todd Young noted during a Jan. 16 confirmation hearing for Scott Bessent that the since-confirmed Treasury secretary would also inherit the chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Investment, or CFIUS, which, depending on how courts rule, could have to again review the Nippon proposal.
Young called Biden’s move, on his way out of office, to block the proposed deal an “abrupt action” that was accompanied by “no clear substantiated evidence, publicly at least, to justify this decision.”
“From my home state, this abrupt action has instilled a lot of anxiety,” Young told Bessent, who assured the senator that if CFIUS gets the proposal again, he would oversee an impartial review. Young contended that the Biden decision came after “political pressure was initially permitted to overshadow an honest assessment of national security vulnerabilities.”
Mum on China
Notably missing from the joint news conference’s routine prepared opening statements and Q&A session was much talk of China.
Trump did say he wants the U.S. military to be stronger than China’s combat force. And he took a swipe over Beijing’s aggressive trade and other tactics.
But the two leaders largely focused on other issues, as did reporters.
To be sure, China is often on the minds of many Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Since Trump returned to office on Jan. 20, GOP members have described him as the sole figure capable of solving problems, including in the Asia-Pacific region.
“China is doubling down on their efforts to gain a leadership position in the global race for AI development in the next generation economy,” said Ohio Rep. Bob Latta, who chairs the Energy Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce panel.
“Here’s the good news: It’s a new day in America, and President Trump has led a necessary reset of our national energy strategy,” he added.
But Democrats, unsurprisingly, have a different view.
“Our country is in a clean energy arms race with China and other powers,” Senate Finance Committee member Ron Wyden of Oregon said Wednesday. “But unfortunately, these policies from Donald Trump and Republicans may prevent us from winning that arms race with China.”
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