President Donald Trump heads to Asia this week, hoping to make some big attention-grabbing moves on the world stage after his party suffered deep losses in the midterm elections, diminishing his standing at home.
The Republican president is using the international trip to try to shift momentum, and he is poised to make a splash with a historic three-way meeting with Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia to talk about their nuclear stockpiles. Trump has long boasted about leveraging his relationships with the leaders of two of America’s biggest global adversaries, though he has failed so far to achieve major breakthroughs with them.
He first heads to the Philippines to meet on Tuesday with Southeast Asian leaders who look to the United States for help countering Beijing's aggression in the region. Trump will then go to China on Wednesday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. There, he will have his third face-to-face meeting this year with Xi and see Putin, too.
A year ago, Trump used a similar Asia trip to agree on a trade truce with China and secure investment pledges from Japan and South Korea. This time, Trump is going with his party no longer in control of Congress as of January and with attention beginning to turn to a crop of presidential hopefuls who aim to replace him in 2028.
“I think he, like other presidents, has figured out that in a moment where things are really hard domestically: Get on an airplane and go international,” said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy secretary of state in Democratic President Joe Biden's administration and chairman of The Asia Group, a consultancy.
It's a pattern followed by some of Trump's predecessors.
Democratic President Barack Obama flew to Beijing days after his party lost the Senate in 2014 to negotiate carbon emission targets with Xi. Republican President George W. Bush went to APEC in Vietnam after the GOP lost control of Congress in 2006, though the Iraq War hung over his travels.
The White House said Trump will sign a trade deal with Thailand in Manila as well as a host of commercial deals and will be the “guest of honor” at a leaders' dinner. In Shenzhen, he will focus on trade issues before the meeting with Xi and Putin.
Trump's troubles are likely to follow him
Trump is leaving as airlines struggled to get passengers onto flights after a nationwide ground stop on Friday led to thousands of flight cancellations. Trump and his officials have blamed their predecessors, a contractor and Congress for the problems.
Trump is about to be bogged down at home in ways that may curb what he can do overseas.
His tariffs and war with Iran proved to be poisonous with voters. Going forward, Trump's ability to threaten import taxes or military assaults — two of his major foreign policy tools — will be limited by Democratic majorities on Capitol Hill in the new year.
Just last week, in a newfound vulnerability, his push to boost artificial intelligence was complicated when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned after admitting to an affair with an alleged Chinese government agent. Beijing has said it was not involved.
Huang had traveled with Trump on Air Force One during his May trip to China, and he and his wife were at the head table when Trump hosted Xi in Washington for a state dinner in September.
Trump has argued that America needs to preserve its leadership on AI and warned of dire consequences if China wins that competition. But Trump does not plan to confront Xi on the issue, said administration officials who insisted on anonymity as a condition for previewing the president’s plans on a call with reporters.
The officials said they do not think the Nvidia situation will loom over the trip. Even though the administration is discussing ways to close loopholes and further prevent Chinese businesses from using advanced chips made by Nvidia and other U.S. companies, the officials said they do not expect the restrictions to cause retaliation by Beijing.
Trump will be accompanied by Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX and Tesla, who is the world's wealthiest man and a frequent adviser to the president. Musk spent at least $445 million to try to help Republicans keep control of Congress, and Democrats are keen to investigate his ties to the administration.
Trump's actions abroad face new scrutiny at home
Trump may find it easier to be in the company of foreign leaders than his own crumbling coalition at home. But his words and actions at the summits are now more likely to draw scrutiny in committee hearings when he returns to Washington.
“We’re going to have a very close eye on it," said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Meeks and other leading Democrats on the committee have already called on the administration to provide more information about its approval of advanced AI chip exports after the Nvidia disclosures.
Democrats also will be pushing for a much tougher approach to Putin and Xi, leaders they view as authoritarian strongmen.
“It seems as though when Xi or Putin comes to America, he rolls out the red carpet for them — but other American allies come, he has not rolled out the red carpet for them,” Meeks said.
Democrats want the administration to impose tougher sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine and have called for the administration to fulfill an arms agreement with Taiwan, which China has sought to block.
Trump has suggested he wants to talk to Xi and Putin about nuclear weapons, an area that China has been reluctant to engage on in the past. China has a much smaller stockpile than the U.S. and Russia, giving it less incentive to agree to restraints.
Wars in Iran and Ukraine will also hang over the talks
The visit comes as Trump is at a crossroads over the war with Iran, which is widely blamed for his political support cratering at home. It's also a source of economic instability in Asia as jet fuel and diesel costs have soared. Trump has tried to play down the chances he will order major strikes against Iran to be resumed, though he also has said he does not see the need for talks.
Democrats are likely to scrutinize whether the president confronts Xi and Putin over r eports that China and Russia have aided Tehran, something Trump has previously dismissed.
Trump recently has played up chances for a settlement to Russia’s war in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not been invited to the talks in China, drawing outrage from Democrats and some Russia hawks in his own party. Administration officials said Trump is not expected to talk about Ukraine with Putin at the meeting.
The sheer number of issues hanging over Trump threatens to overshadow some important issues for the other regional leaders he'll talk to — namely the strength of U.S. support for countering China's influence in the Asia Pacific. In Manila, Trump is expected to participate in talks with the leaders of the Quad, a group of nations including the U.S., Australia, India, and Japan. It will be the first meeting of the Quad leaders since Trump returned to the White House last year.
