Tag: prime minister shinzo abe
Is Trump Really Running The White House?

Is Trump Really Running The White House?

Last Saturday night, Donald Trump attended the Red Cross Ball at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. On Sunday, he watched the Super Bowl at his West Palm Beach golf course. As he left Florida on Monday, news emerged that he will probably return this weekend for golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Two questions. Does Trump think being president is a part-time job? And is Trump the one doing the job?

There’s no clear answer to either one.

Trump OK’d the recent failed commando raid in Yemen after a dinner with national security aides. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush made such critical judgments only after intense reviews in the Situation Room.

The mission ended with children getting killed in the crossfire and the loss of one of our Navy SEALs. In apparent response to the civilian deaths, Yemen blocked further American ground missions against suspected terrorist groups. Trump’s order freezing immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, Yemen among them, may have been another factor.

Few presidential decisions have been as bizarre as Trump’s giving a permanent seat on the National Security Council to his political schemer Steve Bannon but not to his top military and intelligence advisers. After the bipartisan blowback, Trump reportedly complained to his White House staff that he had not been fully briefed on the controversial executive order. Yet he signed it.

No sane real estate developer would buy a suburban shopping strip without first knowing the particulars. And here’s Trump placing someone with almost no foreign policy experience above the experts — and on matters of grave national security.

There are two possible explanations. One is that Trump is lazy. The other is that his “executive” faculties are not firing on all cylinders.

Either or both could explain the growing impression that Bannon is running the show. A former Goldman Sachs trader funneled through Hollywood, Bannon harbors fantasies of world domination, even taking on the pope.

Trump’s ability to perform nuanced thinking was questioned throughout the presidential campaign. Some supporters made plausible arguments that a sober Republican leadership would keep his craziness in check. But with only a few noble exceptions, Republicans have caved in the face of Trumpian aggression.

The last straw for those already doubting Trump’s mental competence was his nutty calls to foreign leaders. He hit bottom in his abusive conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. After angrily denouncing American promises to take 1,250 refugees being kept in Australian detention centers, Trump reportedly hung up on Turnbull, the leader of a very close American ally.

John R. Schindler, a former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer, is no one’s idea of a liberal. But Trump’s weird behavior on the national security stage has Schindler calling on Congress to do its job and get Trump out of office.

“Our mission now is to put White House back in the hands of sane people,” Schindler tweeted. “This is not about R or D, but don’t destroy the planet w yr Twitter.”

As for some extended playtime in Palm Beach, Trump explained that golf will be a better way to get to know the Japanese leader than having lunch in Washington. That’s doubtful, but if salesman Trump imagines he’s going to charm Abe into doing what Abe doesn’t want to do, just add that to the delusion pile. Abe is not one of the children Trump frolics with at home.

Republican members of Congress can start removing Trump now or wait until the eerie show goes belly up in some catastrophic way. It almost doesn’t matter whether Trump or someone else has been making the calls. Whoever’s doing it is creating a terrible mess.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com.

IMAGE: U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greet a marching band as they arrive at Trump International Golf club to watch the Super Bowl LI between New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.,  February 5, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Japanese Prime Minister Offers ‘Everlasting Condolences’ At Pearl Harbor

Japanese Prime Minister Offers ‘Everlasting Condolences’ At Pearl Harbor

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe joined U.S. President Barack Obama for a symbolic joint visit to Pearl Harbor on Tuesday, commemorating World War Two dead and pledging that Japan would never wage war again.

The visit, just weeks before Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office, was meant to highlight the strength of the U.S.-Japan alliance in the face of a rising China and amid concerns that Trump would have a more complicated relationship with Tokyo.

Abe and Obama commemorated the dead at the USS Arizona Memorial, built over the remains of the sunken battleship. Abe became the first Japanese prime minister to visit the memorial, a centerpiece of the historic site.

“We must never repeat the horrors of war again. This is the solemn vow we, the people of Japan, have taken,” Abe said.

“To the souls of the servicemen who lie in eternal rest aboard the USS Arizona, to the American people, and to all the peoples around the world, I pledge that unwavering vow here as the prime minister of Japan,” he said.

Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor with torpedo planes, bombers and fighter planes on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, pounding the U.S. fleet moored there in the hope of destroying U.S. power in the Pacific.

Abe did not apologize for the attack.

Obama, who earlier this year became the first incumbent U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, where the United States dropped an atomic bomb in 1945, called Abe’s visit a “historic gesture” that was “a reminder that even the deepest wounds of war can give way to friendship and a lasting peace.”

The two leaders stood solemnly in front of a wall inscribed with the names of those who died in the 1941 attack and they took part in a brief wreath-laying ceremony, followed by a moment of silence.

“In Remembrance, Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan” was written on one wreath and “In Remembrance, Barack Obama, President of the United States” on the other.

They then threw flower petals into the water.

After their remarks, both leaders greeted U.S. veterans who survived the attack.

Japan hopes to present a strong alliance with the United States amid concerns about China’s expanding military capability.

The leaders’ meeting was also meant to reinforce the U.S.-Japan partnership ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of Trump, whose opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and campaign threat to force allied countries to pay more to host U.S. forces raised concerns among allies such as Japan.

Abe met with Trump in New York in November and called him a “trustworthy leader.”

Obama called for a world without nuclear arms during his visit to Hiroshima. Trump last week called for the United States to “greatly strengthen and expand” its nuclear capability and reportedly welcomed an international arms race.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and Linda Sieg in Tokyo; additional reporting by Mohammad Zargham and Eric Beech in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell and Lisa Shumaker)

IMAGE: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Barack Obama (L) participate in a wreath-laying ceremony aboard the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, U.S., December 27, 2016.  REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Shinzo Abe: First Japanese PM To Visit Pearl Harbor

Shinzo Abe: First Japanese PM To Visit Pearl Harbor

By Kiyoshi Takenaka

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Pearl Harbor this month with U.S. President Barack Obama, becoming his country’s first leader to travel to the site of the Japanese attack 75 years ago that drew the United States into World War Two.

“This will be a visit to console the souls of the victims,” Abe told reporters on Monday. “I would like to show to the world the resolve that horrors of war should never be repeated.”

The Dec. 26-27 visit will come seven months after Obama became the first serving U.S. president to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima, on which the United States dropped an atomic bomb in the closing days of the war, in 1945.

Abe will hold his final summit meeting with the outgoing U.S. president during the trip to Hawaii.

Obama has close ties to the island state where he was born and where he and his family have vacationed throughout his White House term.

Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor with torpedo planes, bombers and fighter planes on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, bombing the U.S. fleet moored there in the hope of destroying U.S. power in the Pacific.

The attack led to the United States entering World War Two and the eventual defeat of Japan in August 1945, days after U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.

The White House said Abe’s visit would highlight the alliance between the former wartime enemies.

“The two leaders’ visit will showcase the power of reconciliation that has turned former adversaries into the closest of allies, united by common interests and shared values,” the White House said in a statement.

Abe last year spoke to the U.S. Congress and expressed “deep repentance” over Japan’s role in World War Two.

An outright apology from Abe would be unlikely during his Pearl Harbor visit, said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University’s Japan campus.

“He won’t go as far as to apologize, but there will be a demonstration of contrition. He will follow Obama’s model” in Hiroshima, Kingston said. “Obama has shown the way forward in addressing the past without whitewashing and denying.”

In Hiroshima, Obama reiterated his commitment to pursuing a world without nuclear weapons, while avoiding any direct expression of remorse or apology for the U.S. nuclear bombings.

“I think Abe wants to draw a line under history and move forward with (President-elect Donald) Trump and get some difficult obstacles out of the way. It’s probably an astute move on Abe’s part,” Kingston said.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Linda Sieg; Editing by Robert Birsel, Clarence Fernandez and Richard Lough)

IMAGE: U.S. President Barack Obama (R) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe walk in front of a cenotaph after they laid wreaths at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan May 27, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Confusion Over Trump’s First Talks With Foreign Leader

Confusion Over Trump’s First Talks With Foreign Leader

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – One day before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese officials said they had not finalized when or where in New York it would take place, who would be invited, or in some cases whom to call for answers.

Uncertainty over the talks shows the difficulties in turning Trump from a freewheeling businessman into a sitting president with a watertight schedule and a fully functioning administration by his inauguration on Jan. 20.

Japanese and U.S. officials said on Wednesday the State Department had not been involved in planning the meeting, leaving the logistical and protocol details that normally would be settled far in advance still to be determined.

“There has been a lot of confusion,” said one Japanese official.

The meeting was only agreed to last week and Trump and his advisers have been busy in meetings at his headquarters in Manhattan’s Trump Tower in recent days to work out who gets which job in the new administration.

While world leaders sometimes hold loosely planned bilateral meetings at regional summits, it is unusual for foreign leaders to hold high-level diplomatic talks in the United States without detailed planning. Abe is on his way to an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said that to his knowledge, Trump’s transition team had not been in contact with the department either to discuss the transition of government or to seek information ahead of his meetings with foreign leaders.

Trump is expected to use the Abe meeting to reassure Japan and other Asian allies rattled by his campaign rhetoric, advisers to Trump said.

But Trump, a brash outsider with no diplomatic or government experience, and Abe, a veteran lawmaker, have differences on policy issues such as free trade.

Several Trump aides did not immediately answer requests on Wednesday for comment about the Abe visit or contact between the transition team and the State Department.

TRANSITION SPECULATION

Speculation about top appointments to the Trump administration has intensified since the head of the team overseeing the transition, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, was removed last week and replaced by Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Transition team officials said on Wednesday night that Trump planned to announce “landing teams” on Thursday that would begin setting up staff in key agencies, like the State and Justice departments.

They added in a conference call with reporters that those who begin working on the teams would have to sign an agreement not to lobby for five years after they leave the administration, keeping with a Trump campaign promise to institute a ban on lobbying for executive branch employees.

Trump on Wednesday denounced reports of disorganization in the team, singling out the New York Times for saying world leaders have had trouble getting in touch with him since his upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

The Republican real estate magnate said on Twitter he had taken “calls from many foreign leaders despite what the failing @nytimes said. Russia, U.K., China, Saudi Arabia, Japan.”

The Times, a frequent target of Trump’s Twitter blasts, said on Tuesday that U.S. allies were “scrambling to figure out how and when to contact Mr. Trump” and blindly dialing in to Trump Tower to try to reach him.

The newspaper said Trump was working without official State Department briefing materials in his dealings with foreign leaders.

“The failing @nytimes story is so totally wrong on transition,” Trump tweeted, without specifying what it was in the article that was incorrect. “It is going so smoothly. Also, I have spoken to many foreign leaders.”

Trump and Pence had spoken to 29 foreign leaders, the transition team said on Wednesday.

Trump has mostly stuck to normal practice for a U.S. president-elect with the order in which he has spoken to foreign leaders on the phone since his election victory.

But some of his contacts have stretched the limits of the usual procedure.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, an army general who seized power three years ago, appears to have been the first leader to speak to Trump after the election, ahead of closer allies like the leaders of Britain and Germany.

Sisi’s office called Trump last Wednesday and the incoming U.S. president told him it was “the first international call he had received to congratulate him on winning the election.”

Australian media reported that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was the second leader Trump spoke to, after the Australian ambassador to the United States got Trump’s personal phone number from Australian golfer and Trump friend Greg Norman.

Trump also talked on the phone to the leaders of Britain, Germany, Turkey and other allies.

But a phone call on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which the two men agreed to aim for “constructive cooperation,” raised eyebrows among Democrats and traditionalist Republicans worried about a resurgent Moscow.

Trump also met Britain’s anti-EU Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage at Trump Tower last weekend, ahead of any meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

State Department spokesman Kirby said: “There’s been no outreach to date” from Trump’s transition aides. “But it’s not for us to approve or disapprove of conversations that the president-elect is having or may have in the future with foreign leaders.”

‘ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS’

Despite fevered speculation, Trump has yet to say who will fill Cabinet positions such as secretary of state, treasury secretary or defense secretary. His team said that was not unusual and was in line with the timing of the transition of Democrat Barack Obama to the White House after he won the presidency in 2008.

Trump could add son-in-law Jared Kushner as a top White House adviser, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, has been a central adviser during the campaign and transition. The Trump transition team has repeatedly denied it is seeking high-level security clearance for Kushner.

A federal anti-nepotism law prohibits a president from hiring family members to serve in his administration, but the Journal said it was not clear if the law applied to a position inside the White House. It added Kushner had indicated he would avoid the issue by not taking pay for any White House work.

Kellyanne Conway, a senior Trump aide who served as his campaign manager, said she did not think Kushner was seeking an official role in the White House.

“I just hung up the phone with Jared, and we didn’t discuss that,” Conway told reporters on Wednesday night. “I think he just wants to be incredibly helpful to his father-in-law as he’s been all along.”

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will meet with Trump on Thursday, the transition team said. She emerged on Wednesday as a potential candidate for secretary of state.

After speculation emerged that JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon remained a contender for treasury secretary, the bank’s stock price dropped.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, Idrees Ali, David Alexander, Lesley Wroughton and Eric Beech in Washington, and Emily Stephenson in New York; Writing by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Bill Trott and Peter Cooney)

IMAGE: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a Reuters Newsmaker conversation in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 21, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly