On Friday and Saturday here, Trump sat for talks with men accused of masterminding election fraud and a grisly murder. He worked to strike a trade deal with the President of a nation imprisoning a million religious minorities in remote camps. And he tweeted an optimistic "meet you there!" message to the despot who's assassinated underlings with anti-aircraft guns.
Trump's penchant for dictators has always been a pronounced aspect of his foreign policy, but in Japan he appeared to throw aside attempts at masking it. If there is a Trump foreign policy doctrine -- and there is no consensus among experts and analysts that there is -- it would most likely center on the pursuit of deals, no matter the dealmakers.
