Donald Trump greeted by Emperor Naruhito in Japan before meeting new prime minister – US politics live | US news
Trump gets royal welcome in Japan as he meets emperor
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with the news that president Donald Trump received a royal welcome on Monday in Japan, the latest leg of a five-day Asia trip which he hopes to cap with an agreement on a trade war truce with Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Trump, making his longest journey abroad since taking office in January, announced deals with four Southeast Asian countries during the first stop in Malaysia and is expected to meet Xi in South Korea on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Trump shook hands with officials on the tarmac and gave a few fist pumps, before his helicopter whisked him off for a scenic night tour of Tokyo. His motorcade was later seen entering the Imperial Palace grounds, where he met Japanese emperor Naruhito.
Trump has already won a $550-billion investment pledge from Tokyo in exchange for respite from punishing import tariffs.
Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is hoping to further impress Trump with promises to purchase US pickup trucks, soybeans and gas, and announce an agreement on shipbuilding, sources with knowledge of the plans told Reuters.
Takaichi, who became Japan’s first female premier last week, told Trump that strengthening their countries’ alliance was her “top priority” in a telephone call on Saturday.
Trump said he was looking forward to meeting Takaichi, a close ally of his late friend and golfing partner, former prime minister Shinzo Abe, adding: “I think she’s going to be great.”
In other developments:
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The US and China have agreed a framework for a trade deal just days before Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping are due to meet. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the agreement, forged on the sidelines of the Association of south-east Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Malaysia on Sunday, would remove the threat of the imposition of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports starting on 1 November and include “a final deal” on the sale of TikTok in the US.
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Trump has overseen the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia on the first day of an Asia tour. The US president arrived in Malaysia on Sunday before the Asean summit in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. At a ceasefire ceremony in front of a sign that read “Delivering Peace”, the Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, signed an expanded ceasefire deal related to a deadly five-day conflict in July.
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The council of American-Islamic relations (Cair) has accused the Trump administration of a “blatant affront to free speech” after federal immigration authorities detained British journalist, Sami Hamdi, on Sunday. The Muslim civil rights organization claimed that Hamdi had been detained at San Fransisco airport for criticising Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. Hamdi is one of several people who have been arrested and deported by ICE for expressing pro-Palestinian views.
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On the day that his supporters attacked the US Capitol because his 2020 re-election run ended in defeat, Donald Trump called his vice-president at the time, Mike Pence, and told him he would go down in history as a “wimp” if he certified the election result, a new book says.
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Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CBS News Sunday Morning he plans to make a decision on whether to run for president in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over. “Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom said in response to a question on whether he would give serious thought to a White House bid after the 2026 elections. “I’d just be lying. And I’m not – I can’t do that.”
Key events
Amid the redistricting battles, one important point: Republicans control more state legislatures than Democrats.
As the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee puts it on their website urging Democrats to redraw maps, Democrats wouldn’t be able to win an “all-out, state-by-state battle on redistricting”. Republicans legislative majorities oversee 55 Democratic congressional seats; Democratic majorities oversee 35 GOP districts.
The DLCC has called on Democrats to go through mid-cycle redistricting to fight against Republicans’ efforts.
“The GOP’s ploy to gerrymander itself into power ahead of the 2026 midterms continues to intensify across the country, with Indiana becoming the latest to join the ranks,” campaign committee president Heather Williams said in a statement today. “As state Republicans’ attacks on voters expand, Democrats must meet Republicans’ might and fight back to preserve democracy. The DLCC has called on Democratic state leaders to use all immediate options to push back on Republicans – including mid-cycle redistricting – as we build more durable Democratic majorities. We must fund winning crucial battleground chambers to position Democrats for redistricting parity by the end of the decade.”
As Republican states launch more redistricting efforts, Democrats in blue states are still deciding how or if they will respond.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries is said to be headed to Illinois today to meet with local leaders about redrawing the congressional maps. Punchbowl reports that Jeffries will meet with the Illinois Legislative Black caucus and Black members of Congress, a nod to the fact that Black lawmakers will be needed to pass a new map.
Last week, the Illinois Senate Black caucus warned that it wouldn’t support a new map if it dilutes the Black voting population, Punchbowl noted. There are three historically Black districts among Illinois’s 17 congressional seats. Only three of the state’s seats are held by Republicans.
Meanwhile, in Virginia, the Democratic House speaker called a special session focused on redistricting, which could add two or three additional Democratic seats. The state’s governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, called the potential redrawing a “sham” from Democrats who are “desperate for power any way they can get”.
Indiana governor Mike Braun announces he is calling special session to consider redrawing congressional districts in state
Indiana governor Mike Braun announced today that he is calling a special session to consider redrawing congressional districts in the state, the latest state to work on its maps ahead of 2026.
Indiana is one of several Republican-led states that the Trump administration has pressured to undertake mid-decade redistricting to favor Republicans, which began with a push in Texas to redraw lines to add Republican seats.
California is considering a ballot measure to redraw its lines to favor Democrats, taken in response to Texas. Now, several other states, including Indiana, have cast their efforts at redistricting as a response to California.
“I am calling a special legislative session to protect Hoosiers from efforts in other states that seek to diminish their voice in Washington and ensure their representation in Congress is fair,” Braun said in a statement this morning.
Republican state lawmakers in some states, including Indiana and Kansas, have pushed back on the idea of redistricting. But Braun has said, if the state doesn’t redraw its maps, “probably, we’ll have consequences of not working with the Trump administration as tightly as we should.”
As Tesla prepares for a board meeting next week where shareholders will vote on a proposed $1tn pay package for Elon Musk, the board chair told shareholders Musk could leave the company if he doesn’t get the pay increase.
Reuters reports this morning that board chair Robyn Denholm wrote a letter to shareholders saying they should approve Musk’s pay package because he is “critical” to the electric vehicle company’s success.
The contours of the pay package are intended to keep Musk at the company for another seven and a half years, she wrote. Tesla’s board is close with Musk – a prior pay deal, in 2018, was recently struck down by a court because the board wasn’t fully independent and the deal was improperly rewarded, according to Reuters.
“Without Elon, Tesla could lose significant value, as our company may no longer be valued for what we aim to become,” Denholm wrote.
Musk said on the company earnings call last week that he wants to ensure he has control over a “robot army”, a reference to Optimus robots Tesla is building. The pay plan includes increasing Musk’s shares in the company.
“If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over that robot army?” Musk said last week. “I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army if I don’t have at least a strong influence.”
Michael Sainato
Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CBS News Sunday Morning he plans to make a decision on whether to run for president in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over.
“Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom said in response to a question on whether he would give serious thought to a White House bid after the 2026 elections. “I’d just be lying. And I’m not – I can’t do that.”
Newsom’s term as governor ends in January 2027 and he is not able to run again due to term limits, but cautioned that a decision is years away.
“Fate will determine that,” he said.
The California governor has emerged as a high-profile critic of the Trump administration through his social media accounts and push of a ballot measure that would increase Democrats’ congressional seats in response to Republican redistricting efforts – a move that has made him a target for critics.
Melody Schreiber
The staff supporting the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) were let go earlier this month in a sweeping round of layoffs that gutted entire departments of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Most of the committee’s working groups, which pore over data and help set the agendas, haven’t met for months, and there was little communication from the staff even before they received reduction in force (RIF) notices during the US government shutdown.
The ACIP meeting planned for 22-23 October has been indefinitely postponed.
The changes mean the US government may not make routine vaccine recommendations for more than half of children in 2026, and they will likely affect the development and recommendation of new vaccines in the pipeline.
The ACIP made headlines in June when Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, replaced all of the independent vaccine advisers with his own handpicked advisers, an unprecedented move.
Some of these advisers, as well as others added in September, are vocal anti-vaccine activists. But the work of the committee isn’t done only by the independent advisers; it is supported by CDC staff and outside experts on working groups.
The CDC staff provide logistical support and subject-matter expertise, and they make sure the committee follows rules and regulations.
Michael Sainato
British journalist Sami Hamdi was reportedly detained on Sunday morning by federal immigration authorities at San Francisco international airport, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) says that action is apparent retaliation for the Muslim political commentator’s criticism of Israel while touring the US.
A statement from Cair said it was “a blatant affront to free speech” to detain Hamdi for criticizing Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza while he engaged on a speaking tour in the US. A Trump administration official added in a separate statement that Hamdi is facing deportation.
“Our attorneys and partners are working to address this injustice,” Cair’s statement said. The statement also called on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “to immediately account for and release Mr Hamdi”, saying his only “‘crime’ is criticizing a foreign government” that Cair accused of having “committed genocide”.
The press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, wrote of Hamdi in a social media post: “This individual’s visa was revoked, and he is in ICE custody pending removal”.
McLaughlin’s post also said: “Those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country.”
During his tour, Hamdi spoke on Saturday at the annual gala for Cair’s chapter in Sacramento. He was expected to speak on Sunday at the gala for the Florida chapter of Cair.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent celebrated Japan’s Nikkei share average closing above the 50,000 level for the first time on Monday, in a meeting with Japanese finance minister Satsuki Katayama in Tokyo.
“It’s an honor to be here on the day it went over 50,000”, Bessent told Katayama. “Congratulations,” he added.
“I’ve been coming since 1991,” said Bessent, a former hedge fund manager known for having made hefty profits for betting against the yen in the 2010s.
Bessent arrived in Japan on Monday evening as part of the Asia tour of top US officials led by president Donald Trump and met Katayama for the first time in person since she took office last week.
Trump says he would not run for vice-president in 2028
President Donald Trump said on Monday he would rule out running for the vice-presidency in the 2028 US election, an approach some of his supporters have floated to allow the Republican president to serve an additional term in office.
“I’d be allowed to do that,” Trump said, in an exchange with reporters aboard Air Force One.
But he added:
I wouldn’t do that. I think it’s too cute. Yeah, I would rule that out because it’s too cute. I think the people wouldn’t like that. It’s too cute. It’s not – it wouldn’t be right.
No one may be elected to the US presidency a third time, according to the 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution.
Some have suggested that one way around this prohibition would be for Trump to stand as vice-president, while another candidate stood for president and resigned, letting Trump again assume the presidency.
Opponents have disputed whether this would be legal.
Ramon Antonio Vargas
The Trump administration’s military airtrikes against boats off Venezuela’s coast that the White House claims were being used for drug trafficking are “extrajudicial killings”, said Rand Paul, the president’s fellow Republican and US senator from Kentucky.
Paul’s strong comments on the topic came on Sunday during an interview on Republican-friendly Fox News, three days after Donald Trump publicly claimed he “can’t imagine” federal lawmakers would have “any problem” with the strikes when asked about seeking congressional approval for them.
US forces in recent weeks have carried out at least eight strikes against boats in the Caribbean off Venezuela’s coast, killing about 40 people that the Trump administration has insisted were involved in smuggling drugs.
Speaking with Fox News Sunday anchor Shannon Bream, Paul asserted that Congress has “gotten no information” on the campaign of strikes from Trump’s administration – despite the president claiming the White House would be open to briefing the federal lawmakers about the offensive.
“No one said their name, no one said what evidence, no one said whether they’re armed, and we’ve had no evidence presented,” Paul said of the targeted boats or those on board. He argued that the Trump administration’s actions bring to mind the way China and Iran’s repressive governments have previously executed drug smugglers.
“They summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public,” Paul contended in his conversation with Bream. “So it’s wrong.”
Trump gets royal welcome in Japan as he meets emperor
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with the news that president Donald Trump received a royal welcome on Monday in Japan, the latest leg of a five-day Asia trip which he hopes to cap with an agreement on a trade war truce with Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Trump, making his longest journey abroad since taking office in January, announced deals with four Southeast Asian countries during the first stop in Malaysia and is expected to meet Xi in South Korea on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Trump shook hands with officials on the tarmac and gave a few fist pumps, before his helicopter whisked him off for a scenic night tour of Tokyo. His motorcade was later seen entering the Imperial Palace grounds, where he met Japanese emperor Naruhito.
Trump has already won a $550-billion investment pledge from Tokyo in exchange for respite from punishing import tariffs.
Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is hoping to further impress Trump with promises to purchase US pickup trucks, soybeans and gas, and announce an agreement on shipbuilding, sources with knowledge of the plans told Reuters.
Takaichi, who became Japan’s first female premier last week, told Trump that strengthening their countries’ alliance was her “top priority” in a telephone call on Saturday.
Trump said he was looking forward to meeting Takaichi, a close ally of his late friend and golfing partner, former prime minister Shinzo Abe, adding: “I think she’s going to be great.”
In other developments:
-
The US and China have agreed a framework for a trade deal just days before Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping are due to meet. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the agreement, forged on the sidelines of the Association of south-east Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Malaysia on Sunday, would remove the threat of the imposition of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports starting on 1 November and include “a final deal” on the sale of TikTok in the US.
-
Trump has overseen the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia on the first day of an Asia tour. The US president arrived in Malaysia on Sunday before the Asean summit in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. At a ceasefire ceremony in front of a sign that read “Delivering Peace”, the Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, signed an expanded ceasefire deal related to a deadly five-day conflict in July.
-
The council of American-Islamic relations (Cair) has accused the Trump administration of a “blatant affront to free speech” after federal immigration authorities detained British journalist, Sami Hamdi, on Sunday. The Muslim civil rights organization claimed that Hamdi had been detained at San Fransisco airport for criticising Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. Hamdi is one of several people who have been arrested and deported by ICE for expressing pro-Palestinian views.
-
On the day that his supporters attacked the US Capitol because his 2020 re-election run ended in defeat, Donald Trump called his vice-president at the time, Mike Pence, and told him he would go down in history as a “wimp” if he certified the election result, a new book says.
-
Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CBS News Sunday Morning he plans to make a decision on whether to run for president in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over. “Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom said in response to a question on whether he would give serious thought to a White House bid after the 2026 elections. “I’d just be lying. And I’m not – I can’t do that.”
