Trump tells Ishiba at the White House that he wants to slash the US trade deficit with Japan

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday he wants to slash the U.S. trade deficit with Japan as he welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to the White House for their first face-to-face meeting.

Trump added that he isn't taking the possibility of levying tariffs against Japan off the table, but believes the issue can be resolved without punitive action. The United States has a $68 billion trade deficit with Japan.

“I think it will be very easy for Japan,” Trump said at start of his Oval Office meeting with Ishiba. “We have a fantastic relationship. I don't think we'll have any problem. They want fairness also.”

Trump announced that Japan’s Nippon Steel’s was dropping its $14.1 billion acquisition of the Pittsburgh-headquartered U.S. Steel and would instead be making an “investment, rather than a purchase.” Trump said he would “mediate and arbitrate” as the companies negotiate the investment. The U.S. president mistakenly referred to Nippon Steel as “Nissan,” the Japanese automaker.

President Joe Biden, before leaving office last month, blocked the purchase, citing national security concerns. Trump in December said he was "totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company." Trump told reporters Friday that he remained opposed to the Japanese company buying U.S. Steel outright.

Trump's push to cut the trade deficit comes as he has pursued tariffs on both friends and foes in an effort to boost American manufacturing.

Ishiba, who was making a whirlwind trip to Washington to get face time with Trump, said he understands that Trump’s goal is mutually beneficial trade policy.

But the prime minister also noted Japanese companies have held the top spot for cumulative foreign direct investment in the U.S. over the last five years. He added that Japan was looking to invest more in the United States.

Ishiba also heaped praise on Trump, saying he was inspired by the “undaunted presence” of a bloodied Trump pumping his fist after surviving an assassination attempt at a July campaign rally. Ishiba added that many in Japan were also excited about his return to the White House.

“It is not only among politicians, but also among the general public as well as business leaders," Ishiba said. “There are many that were anxiously awaiting your comeback.”

He also said he was excited, before coming to Washington, about meeting a television celebrity like Trump. Ishiba said of Trump that “on television, he is frightening,” but during their Oval Office meeting the president was actually “very sincere." He added that he didn't come to “suck up” to the president.

The pair discussed their shared security concerns about North Korea, and Trump said he would work to reestablish a relationship with that country's leader, Kim Jong Un.

“I got along with him very well,” Trump said of his relations with Kim during his first term. Trump said he thought the relationship stopped a war and that many other countries supported both of them staying on cordial terms.

Trump had a series of meetings with Kim during his first term and boasted about making progress in a relationship that has been frosty for decades. But North Korea continued to build up its nuclear program and test missiles then, and the two nations didn’t reestablish diplomatic relations.

Trump also said at his press conference with Japan's prime minister that he wanted to see some FBI agents fired as the Justice Department reviews how the agency handled investigations into the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I’ll fire some of them, because some of them were corrupt,” Trump said. He added, “it will be done quickly, and very surgically.”

Before Friday's meeting, Ishiba did plenty of legwork to prepare.

He huddled this week with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, two executives Trump recently hosted at the White House. He sought advice from his immediate predecessor, Fumio Kishida.

Ishiba even called on the widow of Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister with whom Trump bonded over rounds of golf during his first term.

"I would like to focus on building a personal relationship of trust between the two of us,” Ishiba told reporters before heading to Washington.

Replicating Abe's relationship with the U.S. president is a tall order. Abe resigned as prime minister in 2020 and was assassinated by a gunman as he delivered a campaign speech in 2022. Nevertheless, Ishiba is making it a priority to connect with Trump.

Ishiba, who took office in October, is just the second world leader to visit the White House during Trump's new term. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week was the first hosted by Trump.

Ishiba arrived Thursday evening for his roughly 24-hour visit to Washington.

The quick trip was essential for Ishiba as he looks to ensure that the U.S. and Japan stay on solid footing with the return of Trump and his "America First" worldview. Both countries have been challenged by China's growing economic and military assertiveness in the Pacific and concerns about a nuclear-armed North Korea.

“I think Prime Minister Ishiba certainly sees this is an important and critical opportunity for him to reestablish what were exceptional bonds between President Trump and Japan in the first Trump administration,” said Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican who served as Trump's ambassador to Japan during his first administration.

Abe was among the few world leaders who developed a bond with Trump during his first term. Trump said Abe's July 2022 killing was a difficult moment for him.

Trump and Abe built their rapport over rounds of golf and dinners with their wives at the president's Palm Beach, Florida, resort, Mar-a-Lago. During Trump's 2019 state visit to Japan, Abe took Trump to a sumo wrestling match and arranged for him to be the first leader to meet with Japan's newly enthroned emperor.

“Shinzo was a great friend of mine,” Trump said. “I couldn’t have felt worse when that happened to him at a horrible event. But he also was a friend of yours, and he had tremendous respect for you.”

Abe and Trump's close relationship was all the more remarkable, because Trump early in his first White House term threatened a “big border tax” on Japanese automaker Toyota if it built a plant in Mexico and derided Japan for what he deemed insufficient defense spending.

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Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writers Didi Tang and Will Weissert contributed to this report from Washington.