Copyright smh
Singapore: US President Donald Trump has famously reserved some of his highest praise for the world’s strongmen leaders. So it was a good sign for Japan’s new female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, that Trump was already effusive with praise ahead of their first meeting on Tuesday morning, saying he had heard “phenomenal things” about her. With the red carpet rolled out at Tokyo’s Akasaka Palace, a fleet of US cars parked out the front, and a pledge by Takaichi to accelerate the country’s defence spending gilding Trump’s arrival, Japan pulled off the kind of diplomatic coup that has defeated other nations: securing adulation, however superficial, where others have been scorned and humiliated. “I want to just let you know, any time you have any question, any doubt, anything you want, any favours you need, anything I can do to help Japan, we will be there. We are an ally at the strongest level,” Trump told Takaichi. Granted, this was Trump on foreign soil, where even he has not strayed from the norms of dignity and respect to the host. Nonetheless, it was as strong an endorsement as Takaichi could have hoped for. Trump feted her as being poised to become “one of the greatest” prime ministers, adding that the late Japanese leader Shinzo Abe would be happy to see her in the top job.
