From left: First Lady Melania Trump and President Donald Trump with Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at the Japanese Imperial Palace on Monday.Photo: Kazuhiro Nogi/AP/REX/Shutterstock
PresidentDonald Trumpand First LadyMelania Trumpon Monday met with Japan’sEmperor NaruhitoandEmpress Masako, becoming the first foreign leaders to visit Naruhito since heascended to the throneearlier this month.
To Naruhito, 59, the president presented a 1938 viola, handmade in West Virginia, along with a signed photo of American composer Aaron Copland and a signed photo of himself (as is customary when state guests visit the emperor and empress). The emperor is a viola player,according to theJapan Times.
To Masako, 55, the first lady presented a custom-made White House desk set including a pen made from a live red oak at Harvard University, where the empress was once an economics student.
In return, the emperor and empress presented the president, 72, and first lady, 49, with a traditional pottery and porcelain bowl and an ornamental lacquer box, respectively, as well as signed photos of themselves.
Reading from prepared remarks, the president gave a brief toast at the dinner. He said he and Mrs. Trump were “profoundly honored to return to Japan as your nation’s first state guests following the enthronement of his majesty the emperor.”
“We thank the people of Japan for their incredible hospitality and warm welcome in this majestic land,” Trump said, quoting from Japanese poetry as he celebrated the “treasured alliance” between Japan and America.
On May 1, Naruhito ascended to the Chrysanthemum Thronefollowing his father’s abdication. In Japanese culture, his reign marks the start of a new historical period, the Reiwa (or “beautiful harmony”) era.
“Thank you and our very best wishes to you, the imperial family and all of Japan for a peaceful and prosperous Reiwa era,” Trump said in his toast at Monday’s banquet.
He and the first lady have been in Japan for a four-day state visit, leaving Tuesday.
President Donald Trump (left) with Emperor Naruhito in Tokyo on Monday.Evan Vucci/AP/REX/Shutterstock
From left: President Donald Trump meets with Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Monday.KAZUHIRO NOGI/POOL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
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Despite the pomp and ceremony that accompanies such a trip, it has not been without controversy given the president’s penchant for off-the-cuff and divisive remarks.
At a joint news conference on Monday with Prime Minister Abe, Trump praised North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as a “smart man” and said he agreed with Kim that former Vice President Joe Biden had a “low I.Q.”
Republican lawmaker Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois, on Sunday criticized Trump’s pro-Kim, anti-Biden position. Hetweeted: “It’s Memorial Day Weekend and you’re taking a shot at Biden while praising a dictator. This is just plain wrong.”
According to theJapan Times, Trump told Abe during an earlier trip to America that he wasn’t sure he would be able to accommodate a return trip to Japan to meet the new emperor.
However, “Trump said he had asked Abe how big the imperial succession would be for the Japanese people compared with the Super Bowl and Abe replied, ‘It’s about 100 times bigger,’ leading him to immediately agree to the visit,” theJapanTimesreported.
Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the probe, declined to make a judgement on Trump’s behavior either way.
source: people.com
