President Trump announced a new trade deal with the Philippines shortly after meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Oval Office.
“President Ferdinand Marcos, of the Philippines, is just leaving the White House, with all of his many Representatives. It was a beautiful visit, and we concluded our Trade Deal, whereby The Philippines is going OPEN MARKET with the United States, and ZERO Tariffs,” Trump wrote on TRUTH Social. “The Philippines will pay a 19% Tariff. In addition, we will work together Militarily. It was a Great Honor to be with the President. He is Highly Respected in his Country, as he should be. He is also a very good, and tough, negotiator. We extend our warmest regards to the wonderful people of The Philippines!”
When asked about balancing ties with the U.S. and China, Trump said he was invited to China by Xi Jinping and added, “I don’t mind if he gets along with China because we’re getting along with China very well.”
“We need to do this with our partners. And again, our strongest partner is, has always been the United States. But of course we are. We are trying to form coalitions and multilateral relations,” said Marcos Jr.
A reporter also questioned whether stationing U.S. missiles in the Philippines might be seen by China as an escalation. Marcos Jr. said the U.S. missiles are part of efforts to “modernize” the Philippine military. Trump also responded:
“We’re gonna have a very good relationship. I know you had some problems with another president, and it was not your fault. It was the president’s fault, and the country was maybe tilting toward toward China. But we untilted did it very, very quickly. But, you know, you did have you had a country that was tilting toward China for a period of time. And I just don’t think that would have been good for you. You could deal with China. We should deal with China. But when I got elected, everything changed and they came right back to us.”
