Donald Trump is set to embark on an Asian tour starting Friday, mere hours after rekindling a tariff dispute with Canada and imposing fresh sanctions on Russia.

This weeklong journey will take him to Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea, culminating in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The encounter is expected to be contentious, given the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China.

Trump has set lofty goals for this Asian tour, confidently stating he aims to secure a “really fair and really great trade deal” with Xi in South Korea.

This trip follows a challenging week for Trump’s foreign policy efforts.

Peace in the Middle East remains fragile, highlighted by the Israeli Knesset’s symbolic vote to support West Bank annexation after Trump brokered a deal with Hamas earlier this month. His second meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin collapsed, resulting in new oil sanctions, while tensions with China have reached a peak.

Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief strategist, has labeled this Asian tour as one of the president’s “riskiest” ventures yet.

‘The Chinese Communist Party has declared open economic warfare against America, so this is what they call a throw of the ‘iron dice.’ This is as high stakes as it gets,’ he claimed.

For a successful trip Trump will likely want to get Xi to back off some of escalatory actions including restrictions on products with trace amounts of Chinese rare earth minerals in them and halting of its purchase of American soybeans.

President Donald Trump is departing for a weeklong tour through Asia on Friday, October 24, 2025 in what one former advisor claims could be his ‘riskiest’ foreign trip yet. Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jingping (right) in South Korea next week

The trip comes at a time when foreign affairs are on the brink after a breakdown in talks with Russia and a teetering Middle East peace deal – all in the midst of a worldwide trade war sparked by the president earlier this year

Some fear that in an effort to reverse these actions, Trump might make sweeping concessions like removing export controls on semiconductor chips and manufacturing equipment. 

‘The worst case scenario for the United States is Trump concedes a whole lot,’ Liza Tobin, who served as National Security Council director for China during the first Trump term and the start of the Biden administration, told Politico.

Trump is leaving Washington, D.C. Friday night for his weeklong trip that will start in Malaysia where he will meet the prime ministers of Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand. He will also hold a working dinner with ASEAN Leaders.

Early next week, the president will fly to Tokyo and meet with Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Then he will head to South Korea where Trump will deliver remarks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) before concluding his trip with the consequential bilateral meeting with Xi.

During a White House event on Thursday Trump repeated his claim that tariffs are what stops the U.S. from being a ‘third world nation.’

Early in his second term, Trump imposed broad tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China before also imposing taxes on nearly every other country on earth.

In February, the president issued a 25 percent tariff on all imports from America’s northern and southern neighbors and then an additional 10 percent on Chinese imports, which he doubled to 20 percent by March.

The tariffs, Trump said, were punishment for Mexico, Canada and China emboldening fentanyl to flow into the U.S. and for allowing proliferation of the migration and drug trafficking crisis over American borders.

Trump has negotiated with all three nations to alter tariffs after retaliatory taxes were placed on U.S. imports to those nations.

Meanwhile, the U.S. terminated all trade negotiations with Canada after Ontario Premier Doug Ford (pictured) unveiled an ad featuring late President Ronald Reagan as a way to rail against Trump’s tariffs on the northern neighbor 

But on Thursday, Trump reignited the fight with Canada after Ontario Premier Doug Ford released a $53.5 million ad campaign using late President Ronald Reagan’s words to push back against U.S. tariffs.

A furious Trump slammed the ad as ‘fake’ and immediately announced on Truth Social that he was ‘terminating’ trade negotiations with Canada.

The 60-second ad pulls from a 1987 radio address made by Reagan who was explaining at the time why he was placing tariffs on Japanese electronics.

‘Let’s take Ronald Reagan’s words and let’s blast it to the American people,’ Ford said upon launching the campaign. ‘We’re going to repeat that message to every Republican district there is right across the entire country.’

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute the ad takes the former U.S. president’s words out of context and says they are ‘reviewing its legal options in this matter.’