Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
September 22, 2026
President Trump. Well, thank you very much. It's a great honor to be with the very highly respected Prime Minister of Japan. She's done a great job. Her numbers—I watch her numbers all the time. And the industry in Japan is doing very well. The country is doing very well. A very big improvement.
And it's an honor to be with her. She's a friend of mine, and we got to know each other very well over the last period of time. And she's going to be a great Prime Minister. She's going to go down as one of the great Prime Ministers. And to have your same representatives, some of them, that I know very well over the years, right? They're tough, and they're smart. And it's an honor to be with you.
Thank you very much.
[At this point, an interpreter translated President Trump's remarks into Japanese.] President Trump. Boy, does she speak fast. [Laughter] That's incredible. [President Trump addressed the interpreter as follows.]
Great job. She's very fast.
[President Trump addressed Prime Minister Takaichi as follows.] Please.
Prime Minister Takaichi. I would like to start off by reiterating my gratitude for Donald's very, very powerful commitment to the Japan-U.S. alliance. Against the backdrop of increasingly severe security environment, including Asian security environment in recent years, I would like to seize this opportunity to demonstrate to the world how robust our alliance is through holding another round of meeting with Donald today here at this venue, U.N. Headquarters.
As you may know, most recently I made a bold decision to have the cabinet reshuffled. In total, we have 18 Ministers. But out of 18, I decided to have 10 new Ministers on board.
But please be assured about our situation: I made an intentional decision to keep Foreign Minister Motegi, Finance Minister Katayama, METI Minister Akazawa, as well as Defense Minister Koizumi. All of them are the counterparts of your great Cabinet Secretaries.
So it is fair to say that we can expect this person-to-person counterpart relationship being a driver to promote policy coordination. And, by doing so, I look forward to deepening our alliance between the two countries.
And, as a matter of fact, thanks to Donald's leadership and also my own leadership, our bilateral economic security cooperation in areas such as AI, semiconductor, and critical minerals has been steadily advancing.
So, on this occasion, I would like to cover a lot of agenda items. So why not we ask the press corps to leave the room—[laughter]—and so that we can have our discussion.
President Trump. Well, you heard it.
Prime Minister Takaichi. Thank you all.
President Trump. She's the boss, so get out.
China
Q. Mr. President, can we ask very quickly about your meeting with President Xi? [Several reporters began asking questions at once.]
Q. Does—[inaudible]—want you to intervene on—[inaudible]?
President Trump. I'm going to talk about it. We'll certainly talk about it.
Q. Thank you.
NOTE: The President spoke at 1:07 p.m. at United Nations Headquarters. In her remarks, Prime Minister Takaichi referred to Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) Ryosei Akazawa of Japan; and U.S. Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio, Secretary of the Treasury Scott K.H. Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard W. Lutnick, and Secretary of War Peter B. Hegseth.
Prime Minister Takaichi spoke in Japanese, and her remarks were translated by an interpreter.
Categories: Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, New York City; Meetings With Foreign Leaders and International Officials : Japan, Prime Minister Takaichi.
Locations: New York City.
Names: Takaichi, Sanae; Xi Jinping.
Subjects: China, President; Japan, Prime Minister; Japan, relations with U.S.; New York, President's visit; News media, Presidential interviews.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600631.