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Trump assures Japan after friendly phone call with China

President Trump Friday met with Japan’s prime minister one day after a phone call with China’s leader that was reportedly friendly and one where Trump vowed to honor a “one China” policy.
Japan, a major U.S. ally in the Pacific, has long been a suspicious of its neighbor
Welcoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House with a hug, Trump said he wants to bring the post-World War II alliance with Japan "even closer."
Although Japan is a historic rival of China, Trump said that his long and "warm" conversation with Xi was good for Tokyo, too."I believe that will all work out very well for everybody, China, Japan, the United States and everybody in the region," Trump said at a joint news conference with Abe.
VIDEO: TRUMP TALKS ABOUT THE US' RELATIONSHIP WITH JAPAN
Trump, fresh off patching up ties with China, reassured Japan's leader that the U.S. will defend its close ally. Together, the pronouncements illustrated a shift toward a more mainstream Trump stance on U.S. policy toward Asia.
Welcoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House with a hug, Trump said he wants to bring the post-World War II alliance with Japan "even closer."
While such calls are ritual after these types of meetings, from Trump they're sure to calm anxieties that he has stoked by demanding that America's partners pay more for their own defense.
Abe, a nationalist adept at forging relationships with self-styled strongmen overseas, was the only world leader to meet the Republican before his inauguration. He is now the second to do so since Trump took office. Flattering the billionaire businessman, Abe said he would welcome the United States becoming "even greater."
He also invited Trump to visit Japan this year. Trump accepted, according to a joint statement.
Other leaders of America's closest neighbors and allies, such as Mexico, Britain and Australia, have been singed by their encounters or conversations with Trump.
But the optics Friday were positive. After a working lunch on economic issues, the two leaders boarded Air Force One with their wives for a trip to Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. They dined with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft at the club Friday night. Trump and Abe are scheduled to play golf Saturday.
Stepping carefully into Japan's longstanding territorial dispute with China over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, Trump said the U.S. is committed to the security of Japan and all areas under its administrative control. The implication was that the U.S.-Japan defense treaty covers the disputed islands, which Japan which calls the Senkaku, but China calls the Diaoyu.
Beijing opposes such statements, but Trump's wording allowed for some diplomatic wiggle room. The joint statement released later was more explicit, however, in spelling out the U.S. commitment.
Abe has championed a more active role for Japan's military. He has eased constraints imposed by the nation's pacifist post-war constitution and allowed forces to defend allies, even if Japan itself is not under attack.
There was less agreement on economics.
One of Trump's first actions as president was to withdraw the U.S. from a 12-nation, trans-Pacific trade agreement that was negotiated by the Obama administration and strongly supported by Tokyo.
Diverting from Trump's stance that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is bad for America, Abe stressed the importance of a "free and fair common set of rules" for trade among the world's most dynamic economies.
"That was the purpose of TPP. That importance has not changed," Abe said through an interpreter, though both leaders held out the possibility of a future bilateral, U.S.-Japanese deal.
Trump has also criticized Toyota Motor Corp. for planning to build an assembly plant in Mexico and has complained Japanese don't buy enough U.S.-made cars — though on Friday, Japanese government spokesman Norio Maruyama said Trump expressed appreciation to Abe for Japanese investment in the U.S. and looked forward to it expanding.
Abe told U.S. business leaders Friday that "a whopping majority" of the Japanese cars running on American roads are manufactured in the U.S. by American workers. That includes 70 percent of Toyotas. Abe said Japanese business supports some 840,000 jobs in the United States.
That may not be enough for Trump, who is highly sensitive to U.S. trade deficits.
Japan logged the second-largest surplus with the U.S. last year, behind only China, and there had been some expectation Abe would use the visit to propose new Japanese investments to help Trump spur American job growth. There was no such announcement Friday — only agreement to launch a high-level dialogue on economic cooperation.
While such calls are ritual after these types of meetings, from Trump they're sure to calm anxieties that he has stoked by demanding that America's partners pay more for their own defense.
Abe, a nationalist adept at forging relationships with self-styled strongmen overseas, was the only world leader to meet the Republican before his inauguration. He is now the second to do so since Trump took office. Flattering the billionaire businessman, Abe said he would welcome the United States becoming "even greater."
He also invited Trump to visit Japan this year. Trump accepted, according to a joint statement.
Other leaders of America's closest neighbors and allies, such as Mexico, Britain and Australia, have been singed by their encounters or conversations with Trump.
But the optics Friday were positive. After a working lunch on economic issues, the two leaders boarded Air Force One with their wives for a trip to Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. They dined with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft at the club Friday night. Trump and Abe are scheduled to play golf Saturday.
Their Oval Office meeting came hours after Trump reaffirmed Washington's long-standing "one China" policy in a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. That statement will similarly ease anxieties in East Asia after Beijing was angered and other capitals were rattled by earlier suggestions that he might use Taiwan as leverage in trade, security and other negotiations.
Stepping carefully into Japan's longstanding territorial dispute with China over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, Trump said the U.S. is committed to the security of Japan and all areas under its administrative control. The implication was that the U.S.-Japan defense treaty covers the disputed islands, which Japan which calls the Senkaku, but China calls the Diaoyu.
Beijing opposes such statements, but Trump's wording allowed for some diplomatic wiggle room. The joint statement released later was more explicit, however, in spelling out the U.S. commitment.
Abe has championed a more active role for Japan's military. He has eased constraints imposed by the nation's pacifist post-war constitution and allowed forces to defend allies, even if Japan itself is not under attack.
As a candidate, Trump urged even greater self-reliance, at one point even raising the notion of Japan and South Korea developing their own nuclear weapons as a deterrent to North Korea.
He made no similar remark Friday, and according to Japanese officials, did not raise the issue of cost-sharing for defense. Instead he thanked Japan for hosting nearly 50,000 American troops, which also serve as a counterweight to China's increased regional influence. He said freedom of navigation and dealing with North Korea's missile and nuclear threats are a "very high priority."
There was less agreement on economics.
One of Trump's first actions as president was to withdraw the U.S. from a 12-nation, trans-Pacific trade agreement that was negotiated by the Obama administration and strongly supported by Tokyo.
Diverting from Trump's stance that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is bad for America, Abe stressed the importance of a "free and fair common set of rules" for trade among the world's most dynamic economies.
"That was the purpose of TPP. That importance has not changed," Abe said through an interpreter, though both leaders held out the possibility of a future bilateral, U.S.-Japanese deal.
That may not be enough for Trump, who is highly sensitive to U.S. trade deficits.
Japan logged the second-largest surplus with the U.S. last year, behind only China, and there had been some expectation Abe would use the visit to propose new Japanese investments to help Trump spur American job growth. There was no such announcement Friday — only agreement to launch a high-level dialogue on economic cooperation.

Trump reportedly considers new immigration order after court defeat

Idiots

Although President Trump said he is convinced that his travel ban will eventually win in court, he said Friday that he is considering crafting a “brand new order."
He said any action would not come until next week, but he stressed that “we need speed for reasons of security.”
The comments, which were made on Air Force One, suggest that he is going to take bifurcated strategy, according to The Wall Street Journal. In that case, his administration could continue a legal fight for his first order all while crafting another.
“I have no doubt that we’ll win that particular case,” Trump said at the White House, during a press conference alongside visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Justice Department is weighing its options, which also include appealing to a broader panel of judges or the Supreme Court.
The decision Thursday was made by a panel of three judges with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco.
In their unanimous decision , the judges refused to reinstate Trump's immigration order and rejected the government’s position that such presidential decisions on immigration policy are “unreviewable.”
“There is no precedent to support this claimed unreviewability, which runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy,” the judges wrote. “…Although our jurisprudence has long counseled deference to the political branches on matters of immigration and national security, neither the Supreme Court nor our court has ever held that courts lack the authority to review executive action in those arenas for compliance with the Constitution.”
The initial order, which was signed Jan. 27, suspended entry for visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries for at least 90 days and froze the entire U.S. refugee program, The Journal reported.
Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston, said the "million-dollar question" is whether the Trump administration would appeal to the Supreme Court.
That could run the risk of having only eight justices to hear the case, which could produce a tie and leave the lower-court ruling in place.
"There's a distinct risk in moving this too quickly," Blackman said. "But we're not in a normal time, and Donald Trump is very rash. He may trump, pardon the figure of speech, the normal rule."

Putin open to meeting Trump in Melania's native Slovenia

President Vladimir Putin thanked Slovenia on Friday for offering to host his first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, but added that the prospect hinges on Washington.
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The Russian leader hailed Slovenia, where Trump's wife Melania was born and grew up, as an "excellent" venue for possible talks with Trump.

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President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 4. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

"It depends not only on us, but we are naturally ready for it," he said.
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Speaking after holding talks at the Kremlin with his Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahort, Putin said Russia welcomes Trump's statements about his intentions to restore the strained Russia-U.S. ties.
"We always welcomed that and we hope that relations will be restored in full in all areas," Putin said. "It relates to trade and economic ties, security issues and various regions of the world, which are suffering from numerous conflicts. By pooling our efforts, we naturally would be able to significantly contribute to solving those issues, including the fight against international terrorism."

In recent years, Russia-U.S. relations have plunged to post-Cold war lows over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and the allegations of Russia hacking of the Democrats in the U.S. presidential election.
In 2001, Slovenia hosted Putin's first meeting with former U.S. President George W. Bush that led to a short-lived thaw in relations between Moscow and Washington. A similarly short warm spell early during Barack Obama's presidency gave way to new tensions.
As part of Obama's early effort to "reset" ties with Moscow, the two nations in 2010 signed a pivotal arms control pact that set new lower caps on the number of warheads each country can deploy.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the prospects of extending the New START Treaty that is set to expire in 2021 will "depend on the position of our American partners" and require negotiations.
He wouldn't say whether the Kremlin favors extending the pact that limited Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads each.
Speaking in a conference call with reporters, Peskov pointed to a "certain break in dialogue on strategic security issues" during the Obama administration, and said Moscow and Washington now need "an update of information and positions."
Peskov on Friday denied a report by the Washington Post claiming that Michael Flynn, the retired general who is now Trump's national security adviser, had discussed a possible review of anti-Russian sanctions with the Russian ambassador to Washington in December. Peskov said Ambassador Sergei Kislyak did talk to Flynn, but the rest of the report was wrong.
While suggesting possible cooperation with Moscow to fight the Islamic State group in Syria, as a candidate Trump was critical of the New START and talked about a need to strengthen U.S. nuclear arsenals.
In December, Trump declared on Twitter that the U.S. should "greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability" until the rest of the world "comes to its senses" regarding nuclear weapons.
Putin also has said strengthening Russia's nuclear capabilities should be among the nation's priorities.
The platform of Trump's Republican Party had promised to "abandon arms control treaties that benefit our adversaries without improving our national security" and called for the development of "a multi-layered missile defense system."
Kislyak told Russian media in Washington that he sees little chance for a compromise on missile defense, as Moscow believes the U.S. wants to develop the shield against Russia despite assurances that it's directed against other threats.
"I don't exclude that at a certain stage we may have a mutual interest to talk about those issues, but as of now I'm not seeing any basis for reaching agreement," he said, according to the Interfax news agency.
He voiced hope, however, that joint efforts to fight the IS could help break the ice in Russia-U.S. ties. "If we have serious cooperation, it could help to start rebuilding trust," Kislyak said in televised remarks.
Kislyak added that Russian and U.S. diplomats will start soon to try to prepare a Putin-Trump meeting.
The ambassador also has sought to downplay differences on Iran, saying that "we disagree more on accents related to the nuclear agreement rather than substance."
Trump has accused the Obama administration of being weak on Iran and responded to Iran's recent missile test with a package of sanctions. The penalties, however, referred solely to the missile program and didn't directly undercut a landmark 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers that curtailed Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for rolling back international sanctions.

Snowden uses report that Russia may turn him over as proof he is not spy

And God didn't make little Green Apples :-)

Edward Snowden, the former National Security contractor who leaked classified material in 2013, is using the report that Russia is considering handing him over to the U.S. as a "gift" as evidence that he is not a spy.
"Finally: irrefutable evidence that I never cooperated with Russian intel. No country trades away spies, as the rest would fear they’re next,” Snowden tweeted late Friday night.
Snowden linked his tweet to an NBC News report that claimed Russians are weighing a handover to "curry favor" with President Trump. The report cited an unnamed senior U.S. official who said he analyzed intelligence reports detailing the conversations.
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A government source told Fox News that Russia believes it has exhausted Snowden’s value and at this point he is more useful as a bargaining chip for Putin. The source could not speak to the concept of using Snowden as a “gift” to the U.S.
The Kremlin has long denied that Snowden was a spy. He was, however, granted asylum by Russia and is allowed to stay there for “a couple more years.”
Trump has not been shy in his opinion about Snowden.
“I said he was a spy and we should get him back. And if Russia respected our country, they would have sent him back immediately, but he was a spy. It didn’t take me a long time to figure that one out,” he said in a debate back in March.
Ben Wizner, the Snowden’s ACLU lawyer, told the network that he was unaware of any plans that would send Snowden back to the U.S.
The House intelligence committee recently released a bipartisan report to provide "a fuller account" of Snowden's crimes and the "reckless disregard he has shown for U.S. national security."
The 33-page unclassified report pointed to statements in June 2016 by the deputy chairman of the defense and security committee in the Russian parliament's upper house, who asserted that "Snowden did share intelligence" with the Russian government.
The report said, "Since Snowden's arrival in Moscow, he has had, and continues to have, contact with Russian intelligence services."
The following sentence was redacted, and there is nothing in the unclassified report that explains why the committee believes Snowden is still sharing intelligence with the Russians.
The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said Snowden isn't a whistleblower as he and his defenders claim.
"Most of the material he stole had nothing to do with Americans' privacy, and its compromise has been of great value to America's adversaries and those who mean to do America harm," Schiff said.
Wizner, Snowden's lawyer, dismissed the report and insisted that Snowden acted to inform the public.
Juan Zarate, a former deputy national security adviser, told NBC that  the Trump administration should be cautious in accepting Snowden from Russia as a sign of good will.
"It would signal warmer relations and some desire for greater cooperation with the new administration, but it would also no doubt stoke controversies and cases in the U.S. around the role of surveillance, the role of the U.S. intelligence community, and the future of privacy and civil liberties in an American context,” he said. "All of that would perhaps be music to the ears of Putin.