As President Trump boarded Air Force One on Tuesday for the long flight home from Japan, reporters, analysts, pundits and Twitter-tweeters assessed what he had accomplished during the four-day visit.
The general agreement: not much.
He presented a four-foot-tall, eagle-topped trophy to the winner of a sumo wrestling tournament.
He praised North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as “a very smart man,” and said he agreed with Kim that former vice president Joe Biden “is a low-IQ individual,” characteristically violating the longstanding tradition that presidents leave domestic politics behind when traveling abroad.
The Biden comment drew chuckles from his national security adviser, John Bolton, and the U.S. ambassador.
Trump dismissed North Korea’s recent missile tests (a serious concern in Japan) and made it clear he disagrees with Bolton on both those tests and on Bolton’s desire to take on Iran militarily.
He announced that the U.S. and Japan will cooperate in space exploration, promising that “we’ll be going to Mars very soon.”
He played golf, ate cheeseburgers, met the new Japanese emperor, and was guest of honor at an imperial banquet.
And — even during the banquet — he tweeted: about the Democrats, about the Indianapolis 500, about special counsel Robert Mueller and the push for impeachment, and about what he calls the “Russian Collusion Delusion.”
“In some ways, the president’s Japan sojourn revealed Trump as part reluctant tourist, part eager honoree, and always deeply perplexed when the spotlight was not squarely on him,” says the Washington Post.
“Mr. Trump acted like a man who could never be fully present,” says the New York Times. “From start to finish, his stay in Japan was defined more by his focus on politics at home than diplomacy abroad, expressed as a running refrain posted online seemingly every time he was left alone with his screens.”
Prime minister Shinzo Abe remained resolutely at Trump’s side throughout the visit, paying no apparent attention when Trump’s views conflicted with Japanese interests and “playing humble guide,” as the Post put it.
“After all, Trump is a president who at times prefers to be treated like a monarch, reveling in the spotlight and celebrations of himself,” the Post says. “And the Japanese were happy to oblige, hoping to woo Trump on everything from trade to security by tailoring the trip to his whims and professed likes.”
They’ll get another chance in June, when Trump returns to attend a Group of 20 summit in Osaka.
