Trump off to Asia, focus at home

Chinese trade, U.S. taxes, indictments vie for his attention

President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, to travel to Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, in Hawaii. Trump begins a 5 country trip through Asia traveling to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippians. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, to travel to Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, in Hawaii. Trump begins a 5 country trip through Asia traveling to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippians. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is being pulled in different directions as he heads to Asia, with his base eager to hear him take a hard line on the Chinese trade and economic practices he railed against as a candidate and others in his administration pushing him to sweep those concerns aside and urge China to tighten the screws on North Korea.

At the same time, much of the president's attention has been occupied by urgent matters at home, including indictments against two top campaign aides, the deepening Russia investigation and a high-stakes fight over his tax plan.

By the admission of his own chief of staff, Trump has been distracted -- as also demonstrated by the flurry of tweets he unleashed Friday before leaving Washington and continued from aboard Air Force One. In 14 tweets over six hours, the president dug deep into intrigue surrounding Hillary Clinton and the 2016 presidential race and other issues, with just one tweet devoted to his trip.

Even before the latest news, concerns abounded over how the president, who dislikes long stretches on the road, would fare during a marathon trip that will take him to five countries in 12 days.

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"There were always questions as to what the end of the trip would look like. Would he become distracted?" said Mireya Solis, a senior fellow at the Brookings Center for East Asia Policy Studies. "Now I think the question has shifted: Is he going to be distracted from the get-go? Are the domestic political problems going to be first and foremost on his mind?"

The administration projected confidence as it scrambled to lock down Trump's itinerary, describing the president as well-versed in the region and familiar with its leaders. National security adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters Thursday that Trump had placed 43 calls to Indo-Pacific leaders as president and met with the heads of Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam, among others in the region -- some several times. Trump has also worked to develop close relationships with Xi Jinping of China and Shinzo Abe of Japan -- ties he hopes will pay dividends.

Two senior administration officials said the president had been preparing for the trip by reading briefing materials -- with lots of maps, graphs and charts, one said -- and holding conversations with key aides and Cabinet members, including McMaster, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and senior National Security Council staff. One of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, like others, to discuss the president's private preparations, said the president was also in close touch with his large network of business contacts.

Less than an hour before takeoff Friday, Trump announced to reporters that he would be changing his schedule and tacking on an extra day to attend a summit that he'd been criticized for skipping.

Ryan Hass, who served on President Barack Obama's National Security Council, said past presidents had their Asia trips "preceded by six months of legwork -- really hard, intensive engagement in the region by Cabinet and sub-Cabinet-level officials to tee up deliverables. ... That has not occurred in this instance."

Part of the problem, some observers said, is that Trump has yet to fill a number of top Asia positions in his administration, including finding his own pick to take over as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and naming a new ambassador to South Korea.

The first half of Trump's trip is expected to be dominated by North Korea. While trade issues will be a recurring theme, the administration has signaled that it does not expect to announce any significant concessions from China on trade or market access -- areas in which Trump hammered China throughout his campaign, accusing the country of "ripping us off." Back then, Trump was vowing to slap a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods, and suggesting that Japan and South Korea obtain nuclear weapons to protect themselves instead of relying on the U.S.

"We can't continue to allow China to rape our country, and that's what they're doing," Trump said at an Indiana rally last year. Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has described the U.S. as "at economic war with China" and described Chinese efforts to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear program as a "sideshow."

Asked by Fox News' Laura Ingraham on the eve of his trip whether he would push Xi in areas such as intellectual property theft, government subsidies and the dumping of products, Trump demurred.

"You have to understand something very important: We have a problem called North Korea," Trump said.

Friday in Tokyo, Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, lauded the Japanese government's efforts to increase female workforce participation, publicly backing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Womenomics" initiative.

"Womenomics recognizes the centrality of women, who represent roughly half of our global population, in achieving true economic growth," Ivanka Trump said in a speech at the World Assembly for Women, hosted by Japan's Foreign Ministry. "When women work, it creates a unique multiplier effect: women are more likely than men to hire other women, to give them access to capital, mentorship and networks."

On his way to Japan, the president stopped in Hawaii, where he said Friday that he eagerly anticipated a visit to Pearl Harbor, the site of a deadly surprise attack by Japan that plunged the U.S. into World War II.

"We are going to visit very shortly, Pearl Harbor, which I've read about, spoken about, heard about, studied, but I haven't seen. And that is going to be very exciting for me," Trump said at the start of a briefing with leaders of the U.S. Pacific Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the region.

Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan Lemire of The Associated Press and by Kevin Buckland of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 11/04/2017

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