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Feb. 7, 2025 - Human Events Daily - Jack Posobiec
54:05
President Trump's Historic Meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba

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A commentator, international social media sensation, and former Navy intelligence veteran.
This is Human Events with your host, Jack Posobiec.
Christ is King!
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard today's edition of Human Events Daily.
We're here live in Washington, D.C. Today is February 7th, 2025. President Trump had met with Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba just a few minutes ago.
We are now waiting for this press conference to begin.
We've got Brian Glenn there live at the White House.
When we see this come forward and who you're seeing come into the room so far?
Yeah, Jack, we are in the East Room here at the White House.
We've got Doug Burgum who made his interest here a little earlier.
We are still waiting for, obviously, President Trump and the Prime Minister of Japan to be here now.
Just kind of looking at what they're talking about is obviously this huge 68 million dollar trade of deficit that we have with Japan.
And President Trump has not taken tariffs off the table for Japan.
So he's obviously in a good state for that.
He's going to step down.
Who has been here in the last week?
We've got the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, obviously this year.
And we've got, of course, now the Prime Minister's hands.
And also, if you look at, on the state side, we've got Governor Greg Abbott, Texas, Gavin Newsom of California.
So, Jack, this has been kind of a conveyor belt, if you will, of who's who.
And everyone's just trying to...
He's just trying to, you know, get in their position, get in front of the president, And I guess solidify any kind of future either trade deals or even any kind of diplomacy deals that they might have in place.
But obviously a very different White House, Jack, than what we saw the administration before.
No, it's exactly right.
And of course, with the Prime Minister of Japan meeting there, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of discussion about China.
There's going to be discussions about the South China Sea.
There's going to be discussions.
About Taiwan, of course, Japan, one of our largest defense partners in that part of the world, in the Pacific Rim.
Then, of course, looking at China, or looking at Japan, I should say, the trade relationship, also a huge situation.
Tariffs, by the way, not off the table with Japan as well.
Of course, we saw President Trump having that meeting with Trudeau and then slapping tariffs on, only to take them off at the very next day after he...
After he was able to break down.
And so I think that I'm sure the economic imbalance has been a huge piece of this as well.
I remember US Steel was at one point about to be purchased by Japan and President Trump blocked that resoundingly.
So I'm sure we're going to see a lot of defense talk, a lot of economic talk as well.
Yeah, we remember, Jack, we had the CEO of SoftBank at Mar-a-Lago last month, I believe it was on December, actually, talking about this investment in the U.S. economy, and then we later saw him at another press conference about three weeks later and had even increased that commitment to U.S. So,
you know, President Trump coming from a, you know, kind of a business economic mindset, very different what we had under President Biden.
Trump very well geared towards shifting that trade deficit and really kind of getting it more of a pro-America, pro-business approach.
And I think by having these world leaders in here, you're showing leadership, you're showing respect.
The pageantry that I saw with the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu coming in was unimaginable.
It was incredible.
The respect that the White House showed him is something that people have been telling me before.
They never saw that under the Biden administration.
So just the fact that these world leaders are coming to the White House, having these meetings, says a lot about their faith in President Trump.
We're going to head to a quick break.
Right now, Brian Glenn there at the White House.
Human Events Daily continues.
Welcome to the second American Revolution. - The Legion.
you Thank you.
All right, Jack Posobiec, we are back.
Human Events Daily here live.
Washington, D.C., want to welcome on.
The Charlie Kirk audience from Salem Radio, thanks so much for being here.
We're awaiting President Trump.
He is about to give a press conference with the Prime Minister of Japan in just a few moments here.
We'll go to that momentarily.
We've got our Real America's Voice camera, as well as Brian Glenn.
They are live in the East Room of the White House.
That's all going down, and Human Events Daily is here to give you the play-by-play and also explain what's going on.
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We are waiting for the president to arrive here at the White House.
He's going to be flanked by the Japanese Prime Minister.
But there's so much going on, not only on the national stage, but the international stage.
So I said, we've got to bring on someone who can explain how all this works from the White House perspective with us.
And we've got Mercedes Schlapp from CPAC, as well as the former White House Director of Strategic Communications.
Mercedes, how are you?
Good to see you, Jack.
So when we're looking at the White House right now, just over the last two weeks, and let's zoom out a little bit, have you ever seen any White House, and you've worked in several, have you ever seen an administration move as quickly as this one?
Oh, goodness.
This is like record warp speed that we're watching before our eyes, Jack.
Look, when I was in the first Trump administration and I came in about six months in, To that first term, we were focused on getting through the executive orders, basically building out the policies that we needed in all these different agencies, prioritizing what the president had to get done.
But of course, President Trump was new to the process, right?
And he had a lot of these cabinet officials and also even White House staff.
That really put a lot of blocks in front of President Trump, a lot of obstacles in getting his work done.
Add to that the fact that you had a very politicized FBI. So what does James Comer do pretty immediately?
Move forward with the Russian hoax.
So a lot of the energy spent was basically pushing back on the fake news, pushing back on the FBI when it came to the Russian hoax.
On top of that, he still managed to accomplish so much during his first term by building an incredibly strong Now, with that being said, this time around, President Trump knows.
He knows the pitfalls.
He knows what has to get done.
That's why you've seen a team that was ready to go day one in the sense of making sure that these executive orders would be signed, moving forward on the priorities that the president has put forth, which is that of ensuring that The border would be secure, in addition to the fact on moving on these anti-woke issues that I think have been So relevant in this election, whether it be, I don't know, just simply agreeing, Jack, that there's two genders or protecting girls' and women's sports.
And so you've seen the president act in an incredibly focused way.
He understands that his political capital right now is the greatest that he'll see during this term going in.
And I think his approach of the shock and awe has been very effective that not even the media has been able to catch up with everything that President Trump has been able to accomplish in just a few weeks.
Also, I mean, we've got to talk about this USAID, this massive scandal where, of course, now, by the way, Samantha Power has this huge op-ed out in The New York Times saying, oh, this is going to let the autocrats around the world win.
Well, I remember who she was labeling autocrats when she was over there with her buddy, Victoria Nuland.
It was Viktor Orban.
It was law and justice in Poland.
She was going all around Europe.
It was the Romanians, the Romanian conservatives.
Any conservative group in Europe, the AfD in Germany, she was labeling them all autocrats and basically using U.S. dollars to go after them.
Is USAID really the head of the snake?
I mean, it definitely is a big part of the snake.
I think that there's other government agencies as well that are incorporated in this pushing of a leftist woke propaganda machine that USAID has definitely helped to fund.
I mean, we were talking earlier about over 6,000 journalists who have been funded by USAID. Who are these journalists?
What are their backgrounds?
We know that they have invested money in these media outlets, many of them to take on some of President Trump's allies or conservative leaders.
And then, of course, this craziness, their obsession with anything that's transgender, anything that's LGBTQ, where they're spending money in conservative countries like Guatemala.
Colombia, we've talked about the fact that they are just spending this money, whether it be to come up with a transgender opera, a comic book that has to deal with transgenderism.
It is so completely disturbing to watch that the taxpayer dollars would be misused by this previous administration.
Let's remember, from the time of the first Trump administration until now, we have seen the budget for USAID double.
And these bureaucrats that were in there also being part of pushing this type of propaganda machine, especially when it comes to the money that was spent for these journalists, for these media outlets, what exactly were they pushing?
And that's why this transparency, the work that's being done by Doge, is so critical to get down to the bottom of what USAID was doing, was funding, and how you're able to basically...
Take it down.
And one of the stories I heard was someone who had gotten work for USAID and they said, you know where the money goes?
It goes to foreign contractors.
It doesn't even go directly to the people.
They feed it to the foreign contractors.
They take the cut of the money.
And then let's see if it ends up in the hands of the people in need.
And that is something that obviously there should be a shift in this right now.
All right, Mercedes, you're the host of CPAC Now.
Also, the massive CPAC national event is coming up.
Before you go, tell us all about it and how people can get involved, not just listening to CPAC Now, but also attending.
Of course.
Well, first of all, next week, we have two very special guests, Jack and Tanya Tay Posobiec.
That is right.
You are pretty excited.
Gracious to sit down with me today to basically, really, we talked about parenting, marriage, God, great advice for young people.
It was really, I have to tell you, you guys cannot miss it.
We have a part one and a part two coming out next week, so make sure to be watching, obviously, your social media and CPAC's social media.
I gotta tell you, it's a side of Jack Posobiec that I don't think many of you have gotten to see yet.
So I'm really excited about that.
But the big CPAC event happening February 19th through the 22nd here at the Gaylord Hotel right outside Washington, D.C. Look, it's an all-star lineup.
From Steve Bannon to obviously you, Jack, who will be joining us.
President Trump, several of his cabinet members, several of his top White House officials.
All these incredible, heroic, I would say, conservative leaders who were there to fight the battle to save America.
And yes, we're going to be celebrating because America is back.
But it's also rolling up our sleeves and getting to work.
On top of that, we have CPAC International Summit on the 19th, where we have delegations from across the globe.
Because as you know...
Where can people go to get access to all of this?
CPAC.org?
CPAC.org.
Go to CPAC.org.
Follow us at CPAC, at Mercedes Schlapp, at MSchlapp.
You'll get it all.
Follow it all.
CPAC is back, ladies and gentlemen.
Mercedes Schlapp, thank you so much for joining us.
us Human Events Daily.
You know, they talk about influences.
These are influences, and they're friends of mine.
Jack Posovic.
Where's Jack?
Jack.
He's done a great job.
All right, Jack Posovic, here we are at Human Events Daily.
President Trump about to meet, he's holding this press conference with the Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Ishiba.
J.D. Vance there, as you see in the East Room, has just entered.
He's talking with Doug Burgum.
We can get that shot up.
There it is.
So they're having their conversation.
By the way, J.D. Vance also coming in and talking about...
Talking about the DOGE situation.
Okay, President Trump, we're seeing him enter.
Let's go.
Let's take that now.
I don't know.
handsome that's better you can't get it okay thank you oh good shit
I wish I was as handsome as him but I'm not remember
that day Thank you very much, everybody.
Appreciate it.
I'm delighted to welcome Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru to the White House for the first time.
Prime Minister, it's an honor to have you with us.
A great honor.
Japan is a great country.
Thank you very much.
Japan is strong and proud.
It's a nation that is home to one of the great civilizations in the history of the world.
For nearly 80 years, the American Japanese people have Enjoyed a friendship like few others.
We've had a great friendship across the vast ocean and found ourselves united by bonds of history, commerce, culture, mutual admiration and great respect.
After our meeting today, I'm confident that the cherished alliances between our two countries and others also will continue to flourish long and into the future.
The military cooperation between the United States and Japan is one of our closest security partnerships, and it's one of the closest we have anywhere in the world.
Our service members work together every day to defend our common interests.
Japan is committed to double its defense spending by 2027 compared to my first term.
They've invested a lot of money because of my first term.
We worked on that very hard with Shinzo.
The great Shinzo Abe.
And we look forward to seeing even more so Shinzo and I worked very, very long and hard, and those numbers are very reflective after my first term.
And now they're going up very substantially based on our conversations today.
In addition to being vital for our shared security, Japan is one of the top purchases of U.S. military exports and equipment.
And I'm pleased to say that this week my administration approved nearly a billion dollars in foreign military sales to Tokyo.
The United States is totally committed to the security of Japan.
We will extend the full strength of American deterrence capabilities in defense of our friend and ally, 100%.
In the years to come, the Prime Minister and I will be working closely together to maintain peace and security, and I also say peace through strength, and all over the Indo-Pacific.
And to that end, we also remain committed to the effort I began in my first term to ensure safety and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
Prime Minister Ishabha and I spoke long and hard about a vital economic relationship between our two countries and the continuance of that relationship.
The United States and Japan trade over $300 billion in goods and services each year.
Japan has invested nearly $800 billion and that's going to go up very, very substantially in the coming months, more than any other country.
They're going to have some competition.
We have a lot of people coming in and investing in the United States.
The feeling throughout the world has never been stronger about this country.
As a result of our victory in 2024, the presidential election, the Japanese investment and technology giant SoftBank announced plans to invest between $100 and $200 billion.
We have many other companies investing.
That number higher than that number, some a little bit less, but we have trillions of dollars of investment pouring into our country now that you didn't have just a short while ago.
Today our teams discussed how our two nations can do even more to stay on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence along with the quantum computing semiconductors and other critical technologies.
And they're coming out.
The problem with technology, that kind, it's obsolete in about two days, so we have to start all over again.
It doesn't last long.
We agreed to cooperate even more closely to combat the Chinese economic aggression, which is quite aggressive.
I'm also pleased to announce that Japan will soon begin importing historic new shipments of clean American liquefied natural gas in record numbers.
It'll be record numbers with our...
Secretary of the Interior, we were talking, I think Doug is here.
Hello, Doug.
Please stand up, Doug.
Doug Burgum, everybody.
We're talking about the pipeline in Alaska, which is the closest point of major oil and gas to Japan by far.
Less than half the distance of any other location.
We're talking about a joint venture of some type between Japan and us.
Having to do with Alaska oil and gas, and that's very exciting.
They're very excited about it, so are we.
As we deepen our economic relationship, I made clear that the United States will be conducting trade with all countries based on the principle of fairness and reciprocity.
Chronic trade deficits not only undermine our economy, they really do, and we're going to get rid of the trade.
We have a trade deficit with Japan of over a...
$100 billion, but we're going to work that out, and I think very quickly, frankly.
We can do it just on oil and gas.
We can work it out, so we intend to do it very quickly.
We both understand that.
And as America welcomes new foreign investment, we also want to ensure that companies build their products and factories here in America, not simply by the assets that we have.
And Japan is going to be opening up auto plants.
New auto plants are being built currently as we speak.
They've just been started.
Toyota is one.
Nissan is going to be doing something very exciting about U.S. Steel.
They'll be looking at an investment rather than a purchase.
We didn't like the idea.
U.S. Steel is a very important company to us.
It was the greatest company in the world for 15 years, many years ago, 80 years ago.
And we didn't want to see that leave.
And it wouldn't actually leave, but the concept, psychologically, not good.
So they've agreed to invest heavily in US steel as opposed to own it.
And that sounds very exciting.
And we're going to meet with Nissan next week, the head of Nissan, a very great company.
And the details, I'll help.
I'll be there to mediate and arbitrate.
And I had the privilege of working closely with a great prime minister, as you know, and you know him very well, Shinzo Abe, the longest serving prime minister in Japan's history.
Likewise, I expect that this prime minister is going to be a great one.
I really believe that he's going to be a great one.
I've gotten to know him for not long, but I can see what they have.
He's got the qualities of greatness.
He's going to do a fantastic job for Japan.
For Japan and for the Japanese people.
And I'd like now to invite the Prime Minister to say a few words and then we'll take some questions.
Mr. Prime Minister, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Mr. President Trump, I would like to sincerely thank you for inviting me to the White House today, immediately following your inauguration.
I also thank you for your very warm hospitality.
I have come to Washington, D.C., with the hope of having a face-to-face meeting and deepening our mutual understanding at this early date with President Trump, who is now leading the United States,
the most important country for Japan's diplomacy and security and aligning our perspectives and visions that Japan and the United States should pursue what should we do to advance the national interests of both of our countries in synergy and to realize peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific
I am convinced that the answer lies in further strengthening the strong and unwavering Japan US Alliance to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific President and I concurred to strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the alliance and to work closely in addressing strategic challenges that both countries are facing in this region.
I conveyed to the President That Japan, as an ally of the United States, is ready to share responsibilities and to play its own role.
I also reiterated Japan's unwavering commitment to fundamentally reinforcing its defense capabilities, and we confirmed the unwavering commitment by the United States to the defense of Japan.
We reaffirmed That Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security applies to the Senkaku Islands.
With half of the world's population and approximately 60 percent of the world's GDP, the Indo-Pacific serves as the engine of growth and vitality for the United States and the world.
President and I also concurred that the United States and Japan will make further efforts in a wide range of areas, working hand-in-hand together to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific.
In this context, we also concurred to further advance cooperation of the multilayered networks of the like-minded countries, including the Quad and trilateral cooperation with the Republic of Korea and the Philippines.
We also discussed Japan-United States cooperation to bring about growth and prosperity.
Economic cooperation, including on economic security, is important from the perspective of strengthening alliance cooperation.
Japan is the closest economic partner of the United States and has been the world's largest investor.
In the United States for five consecutive years.
Also, with the inauguration of President Trump, the momentum for Japanese companies to invest in the United States is growing even stronger.
Today, I conveyed my willingness to cooperate together to elevate Japan's investment in the United States to an unprecedented amount of $1 trillion.
President Trump and myself also concurred to elevate the Japan-U.S. partnership to an even higher level through improving business environment and increasing bilateral investment in employment,
strengthening each other's industries, leading the world in developing advanced technologies such as AI and leading-edge semiconductors and strongly promoting efforts to harness The energy of the growing market in the Indo-Pacific region.
We also confirmed that we will cooperate to strengthen energy security between the two countries, including increasing exports of United States liquefied natural gas to Japan in a mutually beneficial manner.
Regarding foreign exchange, as in the first Trump administration, close discussions will continue between Japanese and the U.S. finance ministers who are experts in this field.
We also held candid discussions on challenges the Indo-Pacific region is facing.
We confirmed that we are resolved not to allow unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion and to oppose such attempts in the East and South China Seas in order to fully defend a free and open Indo-Pacific.
We also reiterated the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Regarding North Korea, we affirmed the need to address its nuclear and missile program, which poses a serious threat to Japan, the US, and beyond, and that Japan and the US will work together toward the complete denuclearization of North Korea.
As the abductees and their families continue to age, I conveyed my strong sense of urgency and determination directly to President Trump and gained his renewed strong support for the immediate resolution of the abductions issue.
While this was my first face-to-face meeting with President Trump, we were able to openly and frankly exchange views, and our meeting turned out to be very productive and meaningful.
As a result of today's meeting, which marked a new departure for the Japan-US relations, we are issuing a Japan-US joint leader statement.
This document will serve as a compass for further cooperation between our two countries.
On the basis of these deliverables, I look forward to working together with President Trump.
Who I respect immensely to usher in a new golden age of Japan-U.S. relations.
I look forward to welcoming you to Japan.
And I am very excited about that prospect.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Any questions, please?
Peter?
Elon Musk said today, I love Donald Trump as much as a straight man can love another man.
What does the First Lady think about that?
I think she'll be OK with it somehow.
So Democratic lawmakers are really upset that those engineers have access to these credit to retainer systems.
Instead of intel, general letters, they're saying that these systems are used to disperse trillions of dollars each year and contain everyday inheritance, personal information, like social security numbers, home addresses, bank accounts.
Why does Go need all of that? - Well it doesn't, but they get it very easily I mean, we don't have very good security in our country.
They get it very easily.
And what we're doing, if you look at...
What has just taken place with respect to some of the investments that have been made on another agency that people have been talking about for years, but nobody did anything about it.
It's absolutely obscene, dangerous, bad, very costly.
I mean, virtually every investment made is a con job.
There's nothing of value to anybody unless there's a kickback scheme going on, which is possible.
And we're going to be doing more and more of that.
We're going to be looking at Department of Education.
We're going to be looking at even our military.
We're going to be looking at tremendous amounts of money, Peter, being spent on things that bear no relationship to anything and have no value.
We're talking about trillions of dollars.
It will be, in the end, trillions of dollars being absolutely wasted and perhaps illegally.
I would say certainly in many cases illegally, but perhaps illegally overall.
And I'm very proud of the job that this group of young people, generally young people, but very smart people, they're doing.
They're doing it at my insistence.
It would be a lot easier not to do it, but we have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption.
We found tremendous corruption.
You mentioned the Department of Education.
What did you think of?
You saw Democratic lawmakers trying to get into the Department of Education earlier today.
Oh, I see the same ones.
I see Maxine Waters, Alola.
I see, you know, all these people.
They don't love our country.
They don't love our country.
We want great education.
So they rank 40 countries in education.
We're ranked dead last.
Dead last.
But the good news is we're number one in one category.
You know what that is?
Cost per pupil.
We spend more per pupil than any other country in the world.
You look at...
Norway, Denmark, Sweden, various countries all up and down.
Finland, China does very well in education.
And then you look at us.
We spend much more money than they do per pupil, or any other way.
But we spend much more money than they do, and yet we're ranked this year, Biden's last year.
Congratulations, Joe.
We're ranked dead last.
So what I want to see is education.
Number one, I like choice.
We all like choice.
But beyond choice, long beyond choice, I want to see it go back to the states where great states that do so well have no debt.
They're operated brilliantly.
They'll be as good as Norway or Denmark or Sweden or any of the other highly ranked countries.
They'll probably have 30, I figure, 35 to 38 states will be right at the top.
And the rest will come along.
They'll have to come along competitively.
And by the way, we'll be spending a lot less money.
And we'll have great education.
Cutting effort.
One of the Doge engineers was fired for some inappropriate posts.
The vice president says bring him back.
What do you say?
Well, I don't know about the particular thing, but if the vice president said that, did you say that?
I'm with the vice president.
Thank you, Peter.
Yeah, go ahead, please.
Yes, red dress.
Thank you so much, Mr. President.
Just how strong do you want Japan's military to be?
And do you specifically hope that their increased military spending will deter China and North Korea?
What did you talk about that?
Well, I want our military to be the strongest.
I also don't mind spending so much money on the military because we build it here.
It's made in the USA, all made in the USA. You know, I rebuilt our military during my first term.
Did a great job.
We left some of it behind in Afghanistan, stupidly.
There was no reason for that, but it was still as much as it was.
It was billions and billions of dollars, but it was a small part of it.
But we're going to have the strongest military by far.
We have great people.
I want to congratulate Pete Hegseth for having gone through the gauntlet.
He went through a lot, but he got through, and he's going to be a tremendous— I have no doubt he's going to be a tremendous leader.
And other of the leaders sitting here, they're— In their own fields, we're going to do something very, very, very great, and we expect great things.
But I expect the strongest military by far in the world, far stronger than China, far stronger than anybody, and that's the way it is.
Thank you very much.
Would you like to ask a question, please?
Go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you.
This is Hiramoto from Nippon Television.
Let me ask two quick questions.
First, this is the first meeting between Mr. President and Prime Minister Ishiba.
So what kind of impression do you have on him?
And number two, do you have an idea or do you have a plan to impose tariffs against Japan so far?
Thank you.
I think that he is going to be a great prime minister.
I think he's a very strong man, very, very strong.
I have great respect for him.
I've known him for a long time through a reputation.
Shinzo Abe thought the world of him, and I think he's going to do a fantastic job as prime minister, a very strong person.
I wish he wasn't so strong.
I wish he was a little bit weaker than that, but that's what I got.
I have to get strong guys all the time.
He's going to be a great...
Prime Minister, I also, in terms of tariffs, I mean, we're going to have tariffs, mostly reciprocal tariffs, where we go with, and I'm going to be probably meeting on that Monday or Tuesday, have an announcement, probably a news conference, but probably reciprocal tariffs where a country pays so much or charges us so much, and we do the same.
So very reciprocal, because I think that's the only fair way to do it.
That way, nobody's hurt.
They charge us.
We charge them.
It's the same thing.
And I seem to be going in that line, as opposed to a flat fee tariff.
Okay?
Yes, go.
Please.
Please, go ahead.
Why don't you go ahead?
This is Ota from Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.
I have a question for Prime Minister Ishiba.
So this is your very first summit meeting.
What was your impression of President Trump?
Were you able to build a good relationship of trust and confidence in Northeast Asia?
There are many challenges, China, North Korea, and so forth.
And with President Trump...
What did you appeal to him?
And what kind of understanding were you able to obtain?
On the economic field, there is the acquisition of your steel, the by Nippon steel, and there are expansion of import of LNG. What were the communication discussions that you have with President Trump for the $1 trillion of investment from Japan to investment?
What was his reaction?
What about your communication on tariff front?
This is the first time that I met with President Trump in person.
So, this was the first time meeting face-to-face.
But for many, many years, I have watched him on television.
So, I was so excited to see such a celebrity on television, to see in person.
On television, he is frightening.
And he has a very strong personality.
But when I met with him, actually, he was very sincere and very powerful and with strong will for the United States and for the whole world.
I was able to feel that.
This is not the sort of polishing.
Or trying to suck up to him.
For the world peace and for the regional stability, that both of our countries need to play our role and make our endeavors and responsibility.
As for the increase of our defense expenditures, it is not that we are told by the United States to do so.
Japan, on our own, on our own decision, On our own responsibility, we need to increase our defense expenditures.
But of course, we need to communicate and consult with the United States.
But the responsibility is with Japan, and the decision is with Japan.
Now, on the tariffs, that, if it is mutually beneficial, tariffs need to be set.
And as for Japan, as Mr. President has introduced to us, an unprecedented investment will be made from Japan to the United States, and so many jobs will be created.
So $1 trillion is the target.
And this will be to the benefit of the United States, but also to the benefit of Japan as well.
Investment is mutually beneficial.
So be it with U.S. Steel, as Mr. President says, it is not acquisition, it is investment.
So the Japanese technology will be provided and the better quality products will be manufactured.
In the United States and the U.S. steel will make products which will contribute not only to the United States and Japan, but also to the whole world.
It is not one-sided.
It will be reciprocal.
It will be mutually beneficial.
And I believe we were able to share on this.
And that is the biggest result that I have seen today.
Thank you very much.
Go ahead, please.
Yeah.
Edward Lawrence from Fox Business.
I wanted to ask you about that U.S. steel deal.
So you're saying that, is this a restructuring of the deal that's happening?
And then will you approve?
They're doing it as an investment, no longer a purchase.
Okay.
I didn't want it purchased, but investment I love.
And they're going to do a big investment, subject to getting the deal done.
And that's something you would approve.
I'm okay with that, sure.
And for the Prime Minister, what was your argument to the President related to the U.S. deal?
And one more on tariffs, Mr. President, if I could.
You said on tariffs that you'd like them to be reciprocal back and forth.
What was the reception from the Japanese Prime Minister when you said that or when you talked about it?
Well, we didn't discuss tariffs too much.
We really discussed many other things, including the pipeline in Alaska, which I think is going to be maybe the most exciting thing with Doug.
Chris?
We discussed that at length, the pipeline.
It seemed to be of great interest to them.
We have potentially more oil and gas than in Saudi Arabia, just in Alaska.
We have the most of any country in the world.
It's a big asset for the United States, but we haven't used it.
We go to Venezuela, we go to other places to take oil and gas, and we have...
More than anybody, it's an amazing phenomenon that took place over the last four years.
Nobody understands it, including the people that were in charge of it.
They had no clue what they were doing.
So it was a big problem.
They were surprised, actually, too.
They were saying, why didn't they?
They wouldn't sell them LNG. They wouldn't sell it.
Japan wanted to buy LNG, and Biden wouldn't sell it.
And I'm trying to figure that one out.
Maybe it was the environment.
You might answer that question.
He's curious about that himself, I think.
Thank you very much.
If you want to answer that, you may, about LNG, that the United States wouldn't sell you LNG. That was a really unfortunate thing, but the current administration I'm sorry, the previous administration was not allowing the LNG to be exported to us.
I believe that President Trump, on the day of his inauguration, allowed us to resume this importing.
I think this is something that is really wonderful for us.
And as the country of Japan, we are interested in Importing not just LNG but also bioethanol, ammonia, and other resources at a stable price, a reasonable price from the United States.
And we also want to improve the trade deficit that the U.S. has towards Japan.
So if we are able to buy those at a stable and reasonable price, I think it would be a wonderful situation.
And for that, I am very appreciative to President Trump.
And we also look forward to LNG and hope that it's a success.
I would just say that on the ethanol, Iowa is going to be very happy.
All of the Nebraska, all of our farm states are going to be very happy.
They want ethanol and we'll be able to provide it.
So our farmers, who I like and they like me, I think they're going to be very, very happy.
We've opened the sale of LNG immediately.
Actually, we did it a few days ago.
And right now, not only China, everybody wants to buy it.
We have more than anybody, and they're all buying it.
But Japan in particular, we're very happy that they're going to start immediately.
And we can supply it to the world, but we're supplying it to Japan, and they can always be right up in the front of the line.
Yeah, go ahead, please.
Go ahead.
Thank you so much.
Mr. Prime Minister, I have a question for you as well, but Mr. President, I'll start with you.
Quickly, to follow up on what Peter was asking, have you directed Elon Musk to review Pentagon spending, given it's the biggest discretionary spending in the federal budget?
Yes, I have Pentagon, education, just about everything.
We're going to go through everything, just as it was so bad with what we just went through with this horrible situation we just went through, and I guess 97 percent of the people have been dismissed.
It was very, very unfortunate.
You're not going to find anything like that, but you're going to find a lot.
And I've instructed him to go check out education, to check out the Pentagon, which is the military.
And, you know, sadly, you'll find some things that are pretty bad, but I don't think proportionally you're going to see anything like we just saw.
Your FBI has turned over a list to the Justice Department of the FBI agents who worked on the January 6 rioters cases.
Are you planning to fire the FBI agents who worked on those investigations?
No, but I'll fire some of them because some of them were corrupt.
I have no doubt about that.
I got to know a lot about that business, that world.
I got to know a lot about that world, that we had some corrupt agents and those people are gone or they will be gone and it'll be done quickly and very surgically.
Did you have a question for the Prime Minister?
Talk up.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I know we have some that are very corrupt and we don't like it.
We're going to bring back the reputation of the FBI. Kash Patel is going to do a great job.
And we're going to bring back the reputation of the FBI, which has been hurt very badly.
It's been devastated over the last four years.
You have just been meeting for the first time with President Trump.
The last administration famously did not have hardly any, if at all, contact with North Korea.
President Trump certainly did the last time he was in office.
Would you like to see him resume that contact and also that in-person meeting that he had with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un?
That is something that the United States needs to determine on its own.
And it's not something that we request.
Having said that, but, for example, in Vietnam or Singapore, the President of the United States, President Trump, was able to meet with Kim Jong-un.
I think that's...
A very positive development.
So, now that President Trump is in power again, if we are able to move towards resolving issues with North Korea, I think it would be great.
And of course, for us, that includes not only denuclearization, but also resolving the abductee issue.
Not only the victims of the abductees, but also their families, too, are aging, and so our time is limited.
So if the President of the United States, if President Trump is able to resolve this issue, we do understand that it's a Japan issue first and foremost.
Having said that, we would love to continue to cooperate with them.
It's actually a good question, and we will have relations with North Korea and with Kim Jong-un.
I got along with him very well, as you know.
I think I stopped the war.
I think if I wouldn't have won that particular election, you would have ended up in a very bad situation.
But I did, and we had a good relationship, and I think it's a very big asset for everybody that I do get along with him.
I mean, I get along with him, he gets along with me, and that's a good thing, not a bad thing.
I can tell you that Japan likes the idea because their relationship is not very good with him.
And if I can have a relationship with not only him, but other people throughout the world where there seem to be difficulties, I think that's a tremendous asset for the world, not just the United States.
Go ahead.
For you and for the Prime Minister as well.
Mr. President, I wonder what you make of the criticism from Democrats that these staff reductions, the cuts that Elon Musk and Doge are doing are an unlawful power grab.
Is there anything you've told Elon Musk he cannot touch?
Well, we haven't discussed that much.
I'll tell him to go here, go there.
He does it.
He's got a very capable group of people.
Very, very, very, very capable.
They're doing.
They'll ask questions, and they'll see immediately, as somebody gets tongue-tied, that they're either crooked or don't know what they're doing.
We have very smart people going in, so I've instructed him go into education, go into military, go into other things as we go along.
And they're finding massive amounts of fraud, abuse, waste, all of these things.
But I will pick out a target, and I say go in.
There could be areas that we won't, but I think everything's fertile.
You know, we're a government.
We have to be open.
And as an open government, I don't know, I guess you could say maybe some high intelligence or something.
And I'll do that myself if I have to.
But generally speaking, I'll just say go.
But he will be looking at education pretty quickly, and he will be looking at military too.
The bulk of federal spending is Social Security, Medicare, programs like that.
Would you like to see him look at those programs as well?
Well, they don't really have to be looked at by him.
They can be looked at by us.
Social Security will not be touched.
It will only be strengthened.
We have illegal immigrants on Social Security, and we're going to find out who they are and take them out.
We have illegal immigrants in other, Medicare.
We have, we found a lot of bad people, a lot of people that shouldn't be on.
That were put on through California.
A lot of them come out of California.
We're not going to stand for that.
So we're going to strengthen our social security, etc.
We're not going to touch it other than to make it stronger.
But we have people that shouldn't be on, and those people we have to weed out.
Most of them, or many of them so far, have been illegal immigrants.
They shouldn't even be in the country.
Do you have a question for the Prime Minister?
Mr. Prime Minister, the President's affinity for tariffs is well known.
If the U.S. places tariffs on Japanese imports, would Japan retaliate?
I am unable to respond to a theoretical question.
That's the official answer that we have.
That's a very good answer.
Very good answer.
Wow.
That's very good.
He knows what he's doing.
Thank you very much, everybody.
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