U.S. President Donald Trump received a grand welcome from Japan’s first female Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, in Tokyo before the two leaders held a bilateral meeting focused on trade, defense and regional stability.

Video segments below, as presented, starting with the formal welcome ceremony.

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At the grand Akasaka Palace, President Donald Trump met Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for a historic U.S.–Japan summit. The leaders celebrated shared achievements, discussed new trade and defense commitments, and promised a stronger alliance for peace and prosperity.

President Trump delivered very touching remarks about former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Mrs Takaichi’s friend and mentor in politics.

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CBS stenographer Margaret Brennan attempts to play the role of geopolitical trade expert in this interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.  She fails miserably.

Secretary Bessent gives a few more details on the upcoming trade agreement that will be signed by President Trump and Chairman Xi at the upcoming meeting in South Korea.   Brennan asks if the export controls on Chinese rare earth minerals “will be lifted.”  Bessent reminds Brennan the export controls have never been imposed.  lol  WATCH (or read):

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We begin this morning with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is traveling with President Trump. He joins us from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Good evening to you.

TREASURY SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Margaret, good to speak to you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have been negotiating directly with the Chinese. You said today a truce may have been reached. The threat on the table was a 155% tariff on China. The President said that would be effective November 1. Is that off the table? What are the terms?

SEC. BESSENT: Margaret, I think we had a very good two day meeting. I would believe that the- so it would be an extra 100% from where we are now, and I believe that that is effectively off the table. I’m not going to get ahead of the two leaders who will be meeting in Korea on Thursday, but I can tell you we had a very good two days. So I would expect that the threat of the 100% has gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made the legacy media rounds Sunday saying that he and his Chinese negotiating counterpart had reached an agreement on export controls for rare earth minerals, that would lead to the United States not imposing 100 percent tariffs on China.

Secretary Bessent said that trade negotiations with China had been very productive. The plan was to create a deal for President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping this week in South Korea. However, NBC’s Kirsten Welker was not prepared for Bessent to make a positive announcement about U.S-China trade negotiations.

Because the script in front of her did not factor in the announcement by Bessent, what you see is Secretary Bessent breaking news about a U.S-China trade agreement, but Welker’s pre-scripted follow up questions didn’t align with that news. Welker ends up asking about tariffs and rare earth minerals, after Bessent says a deal to avoid tariffs and retain rare earth mineral access was developed.

Welker then continues asking about U.S-China trade conflicts until Bessent makes the point of saying something akin to ‘can you not hear me, the trade friction is resolved.’ Welker is then forced to abandon her script and ask about Canada. WATCH:

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Speaking to leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), President Trump delivered remarks during the working session.

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White House Chair of the National Economic Council (NEC), Kevin Hassett, walked out to the press pool to discuss the latest excellent inflation figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics today {BLS REPORT HERE}.  However, the insufferable press pool wanted to talk about other things.

I’ll get to the BLS data below – with a gold nugget just for you, don’t share it.  But first, NEC Director Hassett also let something slip in his responsive comments that most will miss.

When asked about Trump’s decision to terminate all trade negotiations with Canada, Hasset noted the discussions were frustrating, and “The Canadians were very difficult to negotiate with.” Then comes the key point (03:28), “The fact that we are now negotiating with Mexico, separately, reveals that it’s not just one add, there’s frustration that has built up.”

What Hassett just confirmed again, as if we needed more evidence, is that the trilateral trade agreement -the USMCA- is not going to exist once Trump opens it up for renegotiation.  The USA team is already working on a separate bilateral trade agreement between the USA and Mexico, proactively.  The USMCA is dead – we just have not made it official yet.  WATCH (prompted):

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On the inflation data, the September inflation rate was 0.3 percent, much lower than all economists and pundits predicted.  The tariffs are having no impact on the rise of consumer prices.  In fact, the sectors with the most imported goods are the sectors with the lowest inflation.

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President Trump makes a statement from his Truth Social account that all trade negotiations with Canada are immediately terminated following the Canadian government purchasing ads to lie to the American people about tariffs.

PRESIDENT TRUMP – “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs. The ad was for $75,000,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts. TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” President DJT

At first review this might seem like an angered response to a fabrication by the Canadian government of Prime Minister Mark Carney. However, there is much more to this background story as CTH readers are well aware.

First, rather than make any substantive policy changes, Canada is organizing a new trade relationship with China as an offset to the trade conflict with President Trump. {GO DEEP} This will make Canada a dumping ground for cheap Chinese goods, which then becomes a problem for the U.S.

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Having provided deliberate advice and counsel quietly on these matters, it is important to continue watching the developments as they unfold.  There are trillions at stake.

President Trump’s global trade and economic reset is well underway. It is not an overstatement to say the western world economic structures within trade, banking and finance are in opposition to his efforts.  Alas, as we have outlined extensively, part of the larger phase of this reset will come in the likely dissolution of the U.S. Mexico, Canada trade agreement (USMCA).

Canada is taking actions to replace their U.S. trade relationship by aligning more with the EU and China.  This is a very dangerous approach for the Canadian people, because in the short-term there may be benefits; however, in the longer term the downsides are quite severe. Remember, Xi Jinping wanted Mark Carney to win the parliamentary election.

[SOURCE] – Canadian Foreign Minister’s visit to China promotes the warming of relations and new opportunities for educational cooperation! This is the most high-level contact between the two countries since 2018.

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand paid an official visit to Beijing and held important talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The visit not only commemorates the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Canada and China, but also marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the strategic partnership between the two countries. During the meeting, the two sides discussed issues such as trade, energy, environment and public health, laying the foundation for the “normalization” of Canada-China relations.

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Let’s put the events of the last 72 hours into context.

On Monday and Tuesday, Russian oil refineries in NATO countries Hungary and Romania suddenly, and simultaneously, have mysterious explosions and catastrophic fires {citation}}. On Wednesday, NATO head Mark Rutte comes to visit President Trump in the White House, and at the end of the day, the same Russian company, Lukoil, whose refinery exploded in Romania, suddenly becomes sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury {citation}. These events are not disconnected.

President Trump then disputes a Wall Street Journal report {citation}, further saying he did not give approval, nor does he know where NATO long-range missiles are coming from that were launched from Ukraine into Russia {citation}.

Alarmingly, both the Wall Street Journal and President Trump are seemingly correct.

President Trump did not give authorization; however, he did cede authority to NATO to make independent decisions about long-range missiles. The U.K. provided the British storm shadow missiles, and Ukraine launched them with NATO support for targeting deep into Russia.

President Trump saying, “wherever they may come from,” is alarming in itself.  We all know that British PM Starmer, French President Macron, German Chancellor Merz and NATO Secretary Mark Rutte are all in alignment to push NATO into a direct conflict with Russia using the non-NATO state of Ukraine to do it.

The frustrating part is not the obtuse deflection by President Trump – perhaps he really doesn’t know – but rather the alarming issue of questioning whether President Trump is getting accurate information from the U.S. intelligence apparatus to make sound decisions.  President Trump has abdicated the conflict decision-making to the NATO “coalition of the willing”, while the USA remains in NATO as a sideline observer.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio is heading to Israel prior to reconnecting with President Trump for the trip to Asia.  Vice-President JD Vance is departing Israel at the same time.

President Trump has instructed the top level of his administration to be highly engaged and in place in Israel as the tenuous peace agreement between Israel and Hamas still holds.  The U.S. led the effort, and the U.S. is remaining focused on the first steps in the peace agreement at the request of the regional partners who are participating.

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U.S. Vice President JD Vance, joined by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, addressed the media in Kiryat Gat, Israel, from the Civilian Military Coordination Center (CMCC) where U.S. troops oversee Gaza ceasefire operations. The U.S. team praised Israeli cooperation, highlighted progress on hostages and humanitarian aid, and reaffirmed America’s role in stabilizing the region.  WATCH:

Simultaneous to this visit, President Trump released the following statement:

“Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and “straighten our Hamas” if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us. The love and spirit for the Middle East has not been seen like this in a thousand years! It is a beautiful thing to behold! I told these countries, and Israel, “NOT YET!” There is still hope that Hamas will do what is right. If they do not, an end to Hamas will be FAST, FURIOUS, & BRUTAL! I would like to thank all of those countries that called to help. Also, I would like to thank the great and powerful country of Indonesia, and its wonderful leader, for all of the help they have shown and given to the Middle East, and to the U.S.A. TO EVERYONE, thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP“

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