President Donald Trump arrived in Kuala Lumpur and, yes, danced with a troupe of native performers on the tarmac — hips, fist pumps, drums, the works — alongside Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. After a 23-hour flight, the 79-year-old looked fresh enough to make the red-carpet welcome feel more like a rally than a runway. Colorfully garbed dancers represented Malaysia’s major communities — including indigenous people from Borneo, as well as Malays, Chinese, and Indians — because diplomacy can have a beat and still count.
Trump is blazing through Asia on a five-day mission to bolster America’s standing and ink trade wins: Tokyo to firm ties with Japan’s Sanae Takaichi, then South Korea for a meeting with China’s Xi Jinping — and possibly a greeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un along the DMZ if schedules align. (Some leaders bring binders; others bring momentum.)
There was a refueling stop in Qatar, where Trump hosted Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani aboard Air Force One — with a UFC bout rolling on the cabin screens. The focus: shoring up Trump’s Gaza peace plan, including finalizing an international peacekeeping force to deploy to the territory after Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire as part of Trump’s 20-point framework.
“You’re going to have peace in the Middle East. This is real peace,” Trump said during the red-eye stopover. “This has never happened before — 3,000 years this has never happened.”
He added that a multinational group set to deploy is “actually picking leaders right now,” noting the U.S. won’t have to be deeply involved: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar — “the three” — with Turkey, Indonesia, Jordan, Egypt also in the mix. Substantial nations, substantial stakes — and, yes, substantial results, even if the Nobel committee looked the other way this month.
Top billing in Malaysia: a ceremonial peace-deal signing between Cambodia and Thailand, whose five-day border war in July ended after Trump’s mediation and threats of higher U.S. tariffs, following at least 66 deaths. Call it what you want; it’s still ceasefire ink on paper — and that beats shellfire in the field every time.
From tarmac dance to trade talks to peacekeeping logistics, the trip’s first leg shows a familiar pattern: show up, turn up the pressure, get the signatures. Not a bad start — and there’s more runway ahead.
