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Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan, Mar. 19, 2026

March 19, 2026 · The White House · 0:27:39

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump met Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the Oval Office on March 19, 2026. He said he had been “very proud and honored to endorse the prime minister,” who “had the most successful election in my opinion in the history of Japan,” and that the two would be “talking about trade and many other things.”

Prime Minister Takaichi said she came “to directly convey this message to you”: in a severe security environment, “it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world.” On Iran, she said its “development of nuclear weapons must never be allowed,” condemned Iran’s attacks on the neighboring region and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and said Japan’s foreign minister had urged Iran directly to stop. She thanked the President for his “deep trust in Japan and also the unwavering commitment to the Japan US alliance.”

Taking press questions, the President brought in Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on reported Iranian defections. Bessent said the administration is “seeing the defections at all levels” as the regime senses what is happening, that “we are trouncing them from the air,” and that Treasury has seen where Iranian leaders wire their money out of the country: “We’re coming for that. We’re going to get it back to the Iranian people.” Asked about Israel and oil and gas fields, the President said he told Prime Minister Netanyahu, “Don’t do that,” and that he would not do it, as the President stated it.

Why it matters

The bilateral put the alliance’s two files on one table — Indo-Pacific deterrence and the Iran war — with Japan publicly aligning on the nuclear and Hormuz positions and Treasury putting a financial-front claim (defections and outbound money) on the record. It is recorded on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub.

Scoreboard watch

Secretary Bessent’s statements on Iranian defections and on recovering money wired out of Iran, as stated by the Secretary, are recorded here for the weekly scoreboard.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting, Mar. 19, 2026,” The White House, March 19, 2026 (official upload, embedded above; the Prime Minister’s remarks delivered through an interpreter). All figures and characterizations as stated by the participants at the meeting.