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Trump Hosts a Dinner for the Prime Minister of Japan, Mar. 19, 2026

March 19, 2026 · The White House · 0:18:09

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

What happened

President Donald Trump hosted Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at a White House dinner on March 19, 2026, her first visit to the White House. The President welcomed “a great friend” and noted the scale of her election victory — the greatest number ever won by somebody running for the highest position in Japan, as he described it — and the endorsement message he had sent during her campaign.

The President pointed to Washington’s cherry blossoms, the trees given by Japan more than a century ago, as “a living testament” to the friendship, and noted Japan’s further gift for America’s 250th anniversary: 250 cherry trees, already being planted near and around the Washington Monument. He credited the partnership with making both nations “stronger, freer and more successful,” and pointed to the large trade and investment deal reached on his earlier visit to Tokyo, with expanded cooperation in energy, semiconductors, shipbuilding and pharmaceuticals, as he described it. Prime Minister Takaichi thanked the President for the dinner, congratulated the United States on its 250th year as “an icon of freedom and democracy in the world,” and passed birthday wishes for Barron Trump, whose birthday fell the next day, as she noted it.

Why it matters

The dinner closed the ceremonial side of Takaichi’s first White House visit: the alliance presented in its oldest symbol — the cherry trees — renewed with a 250-tree gift for the American semiquincentennial. It is recorded on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Participates in a Dinner with the Prime Minister of Japan,” The White House, March 19, 2026 (official upload, embedded above; remarks delivered with interpretation). All characterizations as stated by the President and the Prime Minister at the dinner.