Democratic majorities will limit Trump’s tariff threats and military options
President Donald Trump heads to Asia this week hoping to make attention-grabbing moves on the world stage after his party’s deep losses in the midterm elections diminished his standing at home. The centerpiece of the trip is a historic three-way meeting with Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia to discuss their nuclear stockpiles.
Trump first travels to the Philippines, where he meets Tuesday with Southeast Asian leaders who look to the United States for help countering Beijing’s aggression in the region. On Wednesday he goes to China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where he will hold his third face-to-face meeting with Xi this year and see Putin as well.
Trump has long promoted his personal relationships with the leaders of two of America’s biggest global adversaries, though those ties have so far failed to deliver major breakthroughs. A year ago, a similar Asia trip produced a trade truce with China and investment pledges from Japan and South Korea. This time, Trump travels with his party no longer in control of Congress as of January and with attention beginning to turn to the crop of presidential hopefuls who aim to replace him in 2028.
“I think he, like other presidents, has figured out that in a moment where things are really hard domestically: Get on an airplane and go international,” said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy secretary of state in Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and chairman of The Asia Group, a consultancy.
The pattern has precedents. Democratic President Barack Obama flew to Beijing days after his party lost the Senate in 2014 to negotiate carbon emission targets with Xi. Republican President George W. Bush went to APEC in Vietnam after the GOP lost control of Congress in 2006, though the Iraq War hung over his travels.
The White House said Trump will sign a trade deal with Thailand in Manila, along with a host of commercial deals, and will be the “guest of honor” at a leaders’ dinner. In Shenzhen, he will focus on trade issues before sitting down with Xi and Putin.
Trump’s troubles are likely to follow him. His tariffs and the war with Iran proved damaging with voters, and going forward his ability to threaten import taxes or military assaults — two of his major foreign policy tools — will be limited by Democratic majorities on Capitol Hill in the new year.
Just last week, his push to boost artificial intelligence was complicated when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned after admitting to an affair with an alleged Chinese government agent. Beijing has said it was not involved. Huang had traveled with Trump on Air Force One during his May trip to China, and he and his wife sat at the head table when Trump hosted Xi in Washington for a state dinner in September.
Trump has argued that America needs to preserve its leadership on AI and has warned of dire consequences if China wins that competition. But Trump does not plan to confront Xi on the issue, said administration officials who insisted on anonymity as a condition for previewing the president’s plans on a call with reporters.
The officials said they do not think the Nvidia situation will loom over the trip. Even though the administration is discussing ways to close loopholes and further prevent Chinese businesses from using advanced chips made by Nvidia and other U.S. companies, the officials said they do not expect the restrictions to cause retaliation by Beijing.
Trump will be accompanied by Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX and Tesla who is the world’s wealthiest man and a frequent adviser to the president. Musk spent at least $445 million to try to help Republicans keep control of Congress, and Democrats are keen to investigate his ties to the administration.
Trump may find it easier to be in the company of foreign leaders than his own fraying coalition at home, but his words and actions at the summits are now more likely to draw scrutiny in committee hearings when he returns to Washington.
“We’re going to have a very close eye on it,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Meeks and other leading Democrats on the committee have already called on the administration to provide more information about its approval of advanced AI chip exports after the Nvidia disclosures.
Democrats will also push for a much tougher approach to Putin and Xi, leaders they view as authoritarian strongmen. “It seems as though when Xi or Putin comes to America, he rolls out the red carpet for them — but other American allies come, he has not rolled out the red carpet for them,” Meeks said. Democrats want the administration to impose tougher sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine and have called for it to fulfill an arms agreement with Taiwan, which China has sought to block.
Trump has suggested he wants to talk to Xi and Putin about nuclear weapons, an area where China has been reluctant to engage in the past. China’s stockpile is much smaller than those of the United States and Russia, giving Beijing less incentive to agree to restraints.
The wars in Iran and Ukraine will hang over the talks. Trump is at a crossroads in the war with Iran, which is widely blamed for his political support cratering at home and which has fed economic instability in Asia as jet fuel and diesel costs have soared. Trump has tried to play down the chances that he will order major strikes against Iran to be resumed, though he has also said he does not see the need for talks. Democrats are likely to scrutinize whether the president confronts Xi and Putin over reports that China and Russia have aided Tehran — reports Trump has previously dismissed.
Trump has recently played up the chances of a settlement to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not been invited to the talks in China, drawing outrage from Democrats and some Russia hawks in Trump’s own party. Administration officials said Trump is not expected to talk about Ukraine with Putin at the meeting.
The sheer number of issues hanging over Trump threatens to overshadow matters important to the other regional leaders he will meet — namely the strength of U.S. support for countering China’s influence in the Asia Pacific. In Manila, Trump is expected to participate in talks with the leaders of the Quad, the group that includes the United States, Australia, India and Japan. It will be the first meeting of the Quad leaders since Trump returned to the White House last year.