President Donald Trump met with Japanese Emperor Naruhito on Monday to kick off the Japan leg of the president’s Asian tour.

Trump is expected to meet with Japan’s chief political leader, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, on Tuesday. Later in the week, the president is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in what both sides have signaled could be a detente in the ongoing trade war.

The emperor, the ceremonial head of Japan, greeted Trump on Monday. The president met with the emperor for about 30 minutes at the imperial palace.

Ahead of their meeting on Tuesday, Trump spoke to Takaichi over the phone from Air Force One.

“I hear great things about her. I think she’s going to be great. She was a great friend of Mr. Abe, who was a great man, Prime Minister Abe, and a great friend of mine. He was just a fantastic person,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One about his upcoming meeting with the prime minister.

“He liked her a lot, she liked him a lot, so that’s a good sign. I look forward to meeting her,” said Trump.

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The meeting’s timing, ahead of Trump’s meeting with Xi, could be opportune for Takaichi, giving the new prime minister time to build rapport with Trump amid long-running tensions between Japan and China. The two leaders are expected to bond over their mutual respect for Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, providing a potential basis to ease trade tensions between Washington and Tokyo, as well.

Trump’s meeting with Xi, scheduled for Thursday, may result in a truce in the trade war that has erupted between Beijing and Washington since Trump took office in January. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that American and Chinese negotiators had reached a “substantial framework” on trade.

“The president had given me maximum leverage when he threatened 100% tariffs if the Chinese imposed their rare earth global export controls. So, I think we have averted that, so that the tariffs will be averted,” said Bessent during an interview on ABC.

“We also agreed on substantial agriculture purchases for U.S. farmers,” he added. “We agreed that the Chinese would begin to help us with the precursor chemicals for this terrible fentanyl epidemic that’s ravaging our country. So, I would say that it was a very good meeting overall.”

In a moment ripped straight from the sidelines at Talladega, Governor Kathy Hochul claimed on Monday that when a crowd of New Yorkers began chanting “Tax the rich!” at a rally for mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, all she’d heard was, “Let’s go Bills!”

Hochul gave the implausible explanation when she was asked about the chanting and whether she would stand firm on not raising taxes despite Mamdani’s repeated calls for higher taxes on wealthy New Yorkers — and on corporations that do business in the city, whether they are located within the city limits or not.

WATCH:

Kathy Hochul oddly drags Buffalo Bills into ‘tax the rich’ chant that overwhelmed her appearance at Zohran Mamdani rally https://t.co/tTLLtrO6Nv pic.twitter.com/1vBIiNrzL6

— New York Post (@nypost) October 27, 2025

“Given the reception that you received last night at Zohran’s rally where people were chanting, ‘Tax the rich, Tax the rich,’ are you going to hold the line on raising taxes even if it means losing an endorsement or getting a primary challenge?” the New York Post’s Stephen Vago asked.

“I couldn’t hear what they were chanting,” Hochul claimed, before adding, “I thought they were saying, ‘Let’s go [Buffalo] Bills.’ I wasn’t sure. When you’re up there, I heard some noise. I heard a lot of cheers. But later on it became clear to me that there’s a — I know there’s a passion for that.”

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Hochul left out the fact that she was in New York City at the time — where they have two NFL teams — and therefore a little over six hours away from Buffalo, New York, by car. She went on to say that she really hoped Democrats could harness the “energy” behind those cheers in order to win back control of the House in the 2026 midterm elections.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) shot back, “The #BillsMafia won’t forget. What a trainwreck @KathyHochul is every single day.”

The #BillsMafia won’t forget

What a trainwreck @KathyHochul is every single day. https://t.co/dBgS5giRI2

— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) October 27, 2025

Others pointed out how similar that moment was to the time the “Let’s go, Brandon” chant was born — when NBC reporter Kelli Stavast heard a crowd of NASCAR fans at Talladega chanting “F*** Joe Biden” and claimed she believed they’d been chanting “Let’s go, Brandon” to cheer on winning driver Brandon Brown.