The US Education Ministry starts an investigation by the title -ix examinations within the HighSchool management position in two states, including California.

In a press release on Wednesday, the Ministry of Education announced that the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) “has publicly announced the federal government's violation against the federal government's anti-discrimination laws in connection with girls and women's sports”. The department also examines the Minnesota State High School League.

The probe is the newest campaign because President Donald Trump's executive order of transgender athletes prevents him from participating in women and girls's sports.

The office for civil rights of the Ministry of Education announced an investigation by San Jose State University last Thursday for “reported violations of title IX”. The University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association were also called the goals of this investigation.

The CIF corresponds to California law by enabling the scholars to attend school programs and activities, including sporting teams and competitions that match the gender identity of the coed, whatever the gender listed in the scholars listed within the records of the coed.

The CIF said on Wednesday afternoon that it’s aware of the investigation by the Ministry of Education: “We do not comment on pending investigations.” The organization also said that it doesn’t collect any data on transgender athletes.

In a press release by the Bay area News Group, the managing director of Equality California, Tony Hoang, expressed the support of the CIF directive.

“This policy corresponds to California law and the basic principles of fairness and inclusion,” said Hoang. “These protective measures have existed for years without problems and made it possible to play the small number of transgender athletes in California, just like all other – school sports.”

Hoang described the brand new federal investigation “one other politically motivated attack and a part of a broader effort to weapons the federal government against transgender youth. It is a conscious try to stigmatize and exclude transgender students as a part of a coordinated agenda so as to extinguish transgender people from public life. “

The California Family Council, a conservative parental rights group, published an explanation on Wednesday in which the investigation was praised.

“CIF has the concerns of athletes, parents and trainers of female athletes for too long, the unconventional gender ideology against fairness, security and the integrity of athletics of girls within the blind eye,” wrote the organization. “This investigation is an important step towards restoring justice in highschool.”

Governor Gavin Newsom's office rejected a statement.

Well-known cases of transgender athletes that take part in girls' and women's sports are small, but there were top-class examples. In November, the Stone Ridge Christian High School of Merced refused in a volleyball match of the CIF Norcal Division VI, the San Francisco Waldorf School, in the CIF Norcal Division VI Volleyball match against the conviction that SF Waldorf opened a transgender player had his squad.

At the Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, two transgender girls were subjected to control and threats when they competed in athletics and cross country. In May 2023, two runners retired to the girls who arrived 1,600 meters from the CIF meeting in Clovis after they received threats that they were transgender.

On Tuesday, the educational department asked the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) to change records, championships, awards and awards, of which it claims that they “take part in biological men who take part in female categories”, were abused.

On February 5, Trump signed an executive regulation entitled “Men from Women's Sports”, which reversed the instructions of title IX under the previous President Joe Biden. The previous guidance beneficial educators to enable players in teams who corresponded to their gender identity and never for his or her gender assigned at birth.

The NCAA followed on February 6 and limited the competition in women's sports to athletes who were only assigned to women at birth. The organization, one of the best -known management committee in College sports, had previously made it possible to play in San Jose State and other colleges.

Originally published: February 12, 2025 at 5.10 p.m. PST

ST. LOUIS – Wearing his black Wild baseball cap backwards, Marc-Andre Fleury had a front row seat to history Tuesday night, but he was the one who planted the seed in Filip Gustavsson's head in the primary place.

Then, as if Fleury had planned the play himself for his goaltending partner, Pavel Buchnevich of the St. Louis Blues cooperated with a superbly placed 79-foot shot directly on the Wild logo in the middle of Gustavsson's chest.

Gustavsson caught the puck along with his trapper in his twenty seventh save, dropped it in his blue crease, took aim and sailed a beauty the length of the ice into the bullseye – the ultimate goal in a 4-1 Wild win.

It was the primary goalie goal in team history and Gustavsson is the fifteenth goaltender in NHL regular season history to attain a goalie goal.

“That was unexpected,” said goalkeeping coach Freddy Chabot within the press elevator after the sport.

“That was great,” said general manager Bill Guerin. “It’s not every day you see a goalkeeper’s goal.”

“A power play goal,” emphasized assistant GM Michael Murray.

Goalkeeper goal! Goalkeeper goal! Goalkeeper goal! pic.twitter.com/NS3CsKb9ge

– NHL (@NHL) October 16, 2024

With 34 seconds left within the Blues' home opener and St. Louis attempting to kill a double minor, coach Drew Bannister called a timeout and hoped for a miracle along with his team trailing by two.

Fleury had other plans.

“I called a quick goalie meeting,” Fleury said with fun.

Gustavsson ran to the bench and got some advice from the clever future Hall of Famer.

“Flower looked at the board and said, 'We're two goals ahead.' You should probably try it if you get the chance. You shoot, right?'” Gustavsson recalled. “I believed, 'Yeah, perhaps I should try this.'”

Gustavsson had never scored a goal at any level of hockey. With a one-goal lead he would never consider it because if he missed it might be icing on the cake and an offensive zone faceoff for the Blues.

“With 2-nothing, I believed, 'Yeah, if I get the possibility, I'll try,'” Gustavsson said.

And then he got his chance.

Gustavsson figures Buchnevich shot the puck right at him so he caught it, froze it and gave the Blues a late faceoff. But instead, Buchnevich “just stuck right in the glove and I tried to put it away as quickly as possible,” Gustavsson said. “It was just perfect on the ice and I just try to shoot it as hard as I can.”

As Fleury said, “Textbook.”

We have a good time the primary goalkeeper goal in @mnwild Story! pic.twitter.com/X5ciE7FTea

– NHL (@NHL) October 16, 2024

Chabot, the Wild's goaltending coach for five seasons, likes to do funny things along with his goalies during practice.

One of the good sights is when he has one goalie stand right in front of the opposite to create an enormous screen. Chabot then pipes absolutely precise shots left, then right, then back left… time and again to either side of the shielding goalie, leaving whoever within the crease struggling to seek out the puck.

What he enjoys most, nonetheless, is the goalkeeper goal drill.

Former Wild goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen was a goaltending machine in his native Finland. Current Wild prospect Jesper Wallstedt, a fellow Swede like Gustavsson, has also scored goals, including with Iowa within the AHL.

“That’s what I expected from Wally,” Chabot said. “Not Gus.”

What shocked Chabot probably the most was that he had never seen Gustavsson shoot the puck as high as he did at one in all their practices.

“I usually complain that my turn isn’t at the right angle to get that high,” Gustavsson said. “But I don't know, extra powers or something.”

What's coolest, in response to ESPN, is that this was the third power play goal by a goalie in NHL history (Evgeni Nabokov in 2002 and Martin Brodeur in 2013). According to NHL Stats, he’s the second Swede to ever rating a goalie goal (Linus Ullmark in 2023).

Funnily enough, Guerin went into the dressing room to congratulate Gustavsson after which asked Fleury if he had ever scored a goal. Fleury knew full well that his former Penguins teammate knew he hadn't done it, then he went crazy and threw a towel on the Wild boss.

After he scored, Gustavsson was mobbed on the ice by his teammates – Brock Faber, Jonas Brodin, Marcus Foligno, Yakov Trenin and Marat Khusnutdinov.

Jakub Lauko's first Wild goal is an undermanned beauty. 2:0 #mnwild pic.twitter.com/gLS19TpTcs

– Spoke Z (@SpokedZ) October 16, 2024

Jakub Lauko, who scored the game-winning shorthanded goal for his first goal for the Wild within the second half, wanted to hitch the team from the bench. There were only nine seconds left in the sport, but he decided it was against the foundations and decided to persist with it.

Luckily for him, Gustavsson ran to the bench and did a fist-bump fly past along with his blocker. The first person he greeted was a smiling, proud Fleury.

“Props to him,” Lauko said. “It’s pretty impressive and he deserves it. It would have been nicer at home with a full barn, but you know it's an incredible moment. I’m just happy for him.”

Gustavsson's goal was the Wild's fourth power play goal of the season. He joked that he desired to help increase the ability play to over 20 percent, but he actually increased it to 30.8 percent.

“Should probably be in the power play meetings now,” Gustavsson said.

Wild coach John Hynes has seen a goalie goal before. While coaching Nashville, Pekka Rinne scored in Chicago.

“It was one of my first few games in Nashville,” he recalled. “But it was almost very similar to Gus. It was kind of a six-on-five situation where you kind of got on the goalie and he had the time to make it and you could tell both guys were…trying. Nice to see.”

Because the Wild played with seven defensemen and didn't return to motion until Saturday in Columbus, Kirill Kaprizov logged 27:59 of ice time – the second most in his NHL profession. According to ESPN, it was the sixth-most goals scored by a forward who had not taken a shot in a game since 2000-01.

But Kaprizov was great and had two beautiful assists from Ryan Hartman and Marco Rossi. He leads 2-0-2 against Minnesota, which has not trailed in a game, by six points.

Kaprizov has a goal, nonetheless, and stated that he’s tied with the Wild's No. 1 goaltender in goals: “Same (number of) goals as a lot of others.”

“It probably won’t be long,” Gustavsson said.

The irony of Tuesday is that before the season began, the Wild had scheduled the Blues game for Wallstedt's season debut. But the Wild are saddled with injuries to Joel Eriksson Ek, Jared Spurgeon and Marcus Johansson, forcing Wallstedt to be sent to Iowa to make room for draftee Daemon Hunt. Plus, Gustavsson is playing so well that they need Wallstedt to get some practice and game motion in somewhere, and without delay it may well't be Minnesota.

The Wild want to provide Wallstedt more games within the NHL this season than last 12 months, but the secret is winning, and if Gustavsson continues to rack up wins, he should get the majority of the playing time.

If the Wild need to return to the playoffs this season, they need the “Gus Bus” who looks and plays just like the goalie from two years ago who finished with the second-best save percentage and second-best goals-against average within the NHL, not the one who fell to a save percentage below .900 last season.

So far in three starts, he has a 2-0-1 record with a 1.66 goals-against average and a .948 save percentage. He worked hard this offseason, returned to Minnesota in great shape and improved his training habits.

“I don’t think I’m doing anything special out there,” he said. “(I’m not) flashy. Of course I make some bigger saves, but that usually happens when you're not in the right position. I just try to be in the right position most of the time and make boring saves. And I think that has worked very well so far.”

Well, like within the second half after Lauko's shorthanded goal, wherein he preserved the 2-0 lead by stretching across his goal area to rob Jordan Kyrou.

“Of course we all know that (Gustavsson) was not happy at the end of last year and no one was happy with what had happened,” Hynes said. “He worked hard this summer and I think he came back with the right attitude and learned his lessons from last year. Now he’s arrived and is playing really solidly, and that’s what you need.”

“At the beginning of the year it's sometimes hard to win if you don't have strong goaltenders because the games are a bit scattered because everyone is trying to get used to the NHL pace. That's how it has to be because if you get good goaltending early on “You have the best chance of winning.”

Goalkeeper goals also help.

Gus writes a wild story pic.twitter.com/lnjSeLQikN

– Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 16, 2024

According to a jury sentenced Donald Trump from 34 charges of falsifying business documents to cover up a politically damaging relationship, he responded with Warning to viewers his press conference after the decision: “If they can do that to me, they can do that to anyone.”

This statement concurrently invokes the perfect of an independent judiciary and attempts to delegitimize it.

As a scholar of political communicationI study how rhetoric strengthens or undermines democratic institutions and might prepare an audience to expect or accept violence. Regardless of what anyone thinks of the legal arguments made during Trump's trial, Trump's attempts to prevail within the court of public opinion proceed his campaign to discredit democratic institutions and threaten anyone who stands in his way.

Demagogy is a political communication used as a weapon, which, as communication scientists Jennifer Mercieca explains“undermines both democratic decision-making and democracy itself.” Demagogues use rhetoric to dominate an electorate quite than persuade it. One of their key characteristics is that they evade responsibility for his or her claims and scapegoat anyone who’s disloyal to the demagogue.

Demagogic communication includes a number of of the terms defined by scholars Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt as “Key indicators of authoritarian behavior.” These include rejection or weak commitment to democratic rules and norms, denial of the legitimacy of political opponents, tolerance or promotion of violence, and willingness to limit civil rights and freedom of the press.

After Trump's conviction for a serious crime, Trump and his Republican allies delegitimized democratic institutions with their demagogic rhetoric and fueled threats of violence.

“Designed to distract”

When Trump declared, “If they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone,” he was in fact right. Ideally, that's how laws work. They should apply equally to an bizarre citizen and a former president.

Trump’s case is phenomenal given his status as a former president, and the legal theory utilized by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been called “novel.” Nevertheless, within the legal and national security publication Just Security, Siven Watt and Norman L. Eisen document a long history of prosecutors pursuing politicians who violate laws to support political campaigns in the same way.

Trump's social media posts aimed to distract from these facts by undermining the independence and trustworthiness of the judiciary and scapegoating anyone who will not be a Trump supporter, including President Joe Biden, Court officialsImmigrants and even a Fox News host who’s seen as not being sufficiently supportive.

As the jury deliberated, Trump set the stage and described the proceedings as “Biden witch hunt,” The “Use the justice system as a weapon!” And “Election interference.” Later claims that the news blackout imposed by Judge Juan Merchan was “UNCONSTITUTIONAL” and called members of the “Justice Department and the White House” “criminals and monsters who are destroying our country.”

Immediately after the jury announced its verdict, Trump stepped up his delegitimization of the American legal system. claim “The real verdict will be made by the people on November 5,” adding: “Our whole country is being manipulated right now.”

Stirring up fear

A very necessary aspect of Trump's response to the ruling is that in his comments he combines the delegitimization of democratic institutions with personal attacks – name-calling – and scapegoating strategies. This strategy is textbook demagoguery.

The day after the decision, Trump began his 33 minutes public comments with an apparent non sequitur that leads from the case to non-public attacks, to immigration and back to non-public attacks again:

“If they can do that to me, they can do that to anyone. They're bad people. In many cases, I think they're sick people. When you look at what's happening in our country, where millions of people are pouring into the country from all over the world – not just from South America, from Africa, from Asia, from the Middle East – and they're coming from prisons and detention centers and they're coming from mental institutions and asylums. They're coming into our country from all over the world. And we have a president and a group of fascists who won't do anything about it. Because they could, right now, today. They could stop it, but he's not. They're destroying our country.”

Voters are being made to consider that the federal government – ​​made up of “sick people” and “fascists” – is targeting them just as much because it is targeting immigrants.

Although Trump's confused approach makes his rhetoric sound disjointed – even chaotic – it’s fastidiously designed to stoke fear and create an environment more amenable to an anti-democratic ruler. Trump's snappy 2016 campaign promise was: “I alone can fix it”, and his newer, alleged “joke” that he was “Dictator for a day”, are a terrible Trump’s comments about his fellow residentslike this statement from late 2023: “The threat from external forces is way less ominous, dangerous and serious than the threat from inside. Our threat comes from inside.”

The strategy could be less effective if Trump were the just one implementing it. But following a well-known pattern The Republicans reliably repeated his formulation.

The Associated Press reported “The intensity of the outcry was remarkable. It pushed aside the usual reticence that lawmakers and politicians have shown in the past when it comes to anticipating criticism of judges and juries.”

The guard summarized the answers of the Republicans: “A shameful day in American history. A sham show trial. A sham court. A veritable witch hunt. Befitting a banana republic. That is how senior Republicans who once claimed the mantle of the party of law and order reacted to the news that Donald Trump is the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime.”

The passionate attack on the judiciary by Republican Senator and vice presidential candidate Tim Scott was emblematic of the response. He called the decision a “hoax,” a “farce,” and a “totally unjust justice system.” He then addressed Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney, directly, saying, “DA Bragg, hear me carefully: You cannot silence the American people. You cannot stop us from voting for change.”

“Hang everyone!”

Instilling fear through personal attacks and scapegoating is commonly a precursor to violence. The attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 followed Trump’s complaints a couple of “rigged” election.

NBC News reported that following Trump's criticism a couple of “rigged” jury trial, social media posts have been circulating that include doxxing, intimidation, and even death threats against Judge Merchan, Bragg, and the jury.

NBC quoted one poster as saying: “We have to identify every juror. Then we'll make them unhappy. Maybe even suicidal.” Reuters quoted Patriots.win user who said: “A million (armed) men must go to Washington and hang them all. That is the only solution” and “Trump should already know that he has an army ready to fight and die for him if he says so. … I will take up arms if he asks me to.”

Not everyone who supports Trump politically is able to “take up arms”, but Video posted on X by Donald Trump Jr. with the slogan “F— JOE BIDEN” shows an arena filled with Fans are waiting for the UFC lightweight championship They chanted “F— Joe Biden” and cheered for Trump as he smiled and raised his fist.

Video of the event was posted on YouTube and spread by right-wing web sites akin to Daily caller And Breitbart.

In her book “Demagogy and democracy”, explains communication scientist Patricia Roberts-Miller: “Demagoguery does not exist in our culture because a demagogue came to power. When demagoguery becomes the normal way of participating in public discourse, it is only a matter of time before a demagogue appears.”

A demagogue has emerged.

About 37 million Children aged 13 to fifteen all over the world devour tobaccoin accordance with a 2024 report by the World Health Organization.

In 2023, e-cigarettes were the mostly used tobacco product In the United States, 7.7% of middle and highschool students reported using e-cigarettes. The second most typical vaping product was cigarettes, with 1.6% of middle and highschool students reporting using them previously month.

Studies show that the majority people tobacco consumption begins in childhood.

I’m a public health researcher who studies the assorted ways wherein firms influence the health of adolescents. My current projects give attention to identifying the sources through which adolescents and young adults are exposed to tobacco promoting.

Over the last decade, I actually have researched Methods utilized by tobacco firms to focus on children and young adults.

Health damage brought on by tobacco

smoking is harmful to each organ within the human body and is thought to cause many kinds of cancer and heart disease, amongst others. Nicotine alone, in products corresponding to E-cigarettes And oral pouchesis harmful for Development of the adolescent brain.

The adolescent brain develops into early maturity, especially within the prefrontal cortexThis a part of the brain is involved in higher cognitive development, including functions related to Attention, memory and cognitive flexibilityStudies have shown that nicotine exposure can result in long-term functional and structural changes within the brain.

Old tactics for brand new US products

Decades of research have documented how tobacco firms marketed tobacco products to win for years young customers to take care of and expand their businesses.

In a 2021 study, my team and I showed that exposure to e-cigarette marketing with cartoon images reduced perception of harm amongst highschool students of e-cigarettes. Research shows that this variation in perspective Make young people more open to trying e-cigarettes.

In a previous study, my team and I examined the consequences of product placements and pictures of e-cigarettes in music videos on young adults’ propensity to make use of e-cigarettes. We found that exposure to product placements of e-cigarettes in music videos increased intention of young adults to try e-cigarettes in the longer term.

Noticeable at a young age

While our research has largely focused on the United States, several recent studies have shown that tobacco firms proceed to market their products to children in other parts of the world.

For example, a team of researchers conducted focus groups amongst Chinese youth to seek out out what sources of exposure to tobacco promoting are and what characteristics make promoting attractive. They found that young people reported were exposed to tobacco promoting campaigns near their homes and schoolsThese young Chinese also reported that vivid colours, product packaging, and price promotions in e-cigarette advertisements and other promotional materials attracted their attention.

In England, a 2022 study provided a Overview of selling claims present on the web sites of popular e-cigarette brands. In particular, the study found that UK web sites contained medical claims about smoking cessation, associations with youth culture and depictions of young people using e-cigarettes.

Normalization of tobacco consumption

The emergence of social media platforms has prompted tobacco firms to change their marketing tactics from traditional channels corresponding to magazines, billboards and retail stores to online channels to capitalise on the time young people spend in front of screens.

Tobacco firms have helped normalize tobacco use online by utilizing Brand social media account pages and social media influencersIn 2021, researchers discovered that e-cigarettes used and promoted by influencers on Twitch, an Amazon-owned company, a video-sharing platform popular amongst teen gamers.

Similar, Streaming platforms Normalize tobacco use. For example, in a 2022 study, my team and I analyzed Netflix original series and movies for e-cigarette-related content. In particular, we documented short depictions of Young people holding e-cigarettes of their hands within the PG-13 movie “Hubie Halloween.” Our results contradict Netflix no e-cigarette promise for PG-13 content.

This suggests that greater external oversight of e-cigarettes in Netflix programming is required.

Raising awareness

Every country must effectively implement and expand restrictions on cigarette and e-cigarette promoting to guard children and young people from messages encouraging them to smoke and vape. Additional efforts are needed in all places to forestall young people from becoming hooked on tobacco.

Most parents, teachers and other authority figures are probably unaware of the extent to which young individuals are exposed to tobacco content online, including tobacco advertisements and peer-written social media posts that normalize tobacco use.

Campaigns specializing in Tobacco-related digital media literacy could create awareness of tobacco products and describe how they’re marketed within the digital environment. There are various evidence-based Resources that could possibly be expanded to assist young people evaluate tobacco promoting messages and enable digital and social media users to actively evaluate information reasonably than remaining a passive goal for industry promoting.

I’m convinced that raising awareness could deter young people from using tobacco.

April 2024 proved to be a busy month in Japanese-American diplomacy.

The month saw a state visit by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the USA That included a gathering on the White House with President Joe Biden on April 10. The next day, each men were joined by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for the meeting First-ever trilateral summit between the US, Japan and the Philippines.

Then on April 23, Taro Aso, former prime minister and leading figure in Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said: met with Donald Trump in New York.

As US-East Asian foreign relations expertI imagine the flurry of diplomatic activity points to 2 things: Japan's strong desire to extend engagement with Washington as a part of an Indo-Pacific strategy, and the very real concern in Tokyo that the U.S. will not be as engaged – regardless who will lead the country after this 12 months's election.

Allies and co-stewards

The Japanese government under Kishida – who was Elected Prime Minister in 2021 – has made it clear that they’re committed to an alliance with the USA

Kishida hopes to say Japan's role as greater than just that of the United States strongest ally in East Asia, but additionally as co-administrator of the “Liberal international order” – these are the worldwide rules and agreements established by leading economies after World War II.

Kishida's intentions became clear within the Japanese 12 months 2022 National Security Strategy, which detailed Japan's short- and medium-term strategic goals. While it included a commitment to unprecedented defense spending and the event of recent defense capabilities, it did so within the context of emphasizing the country's relationship with the U.S. as “the cornerstone of Japan's national security policy.”

Japan's strategy also calls for bilateral relations with the United States to transcend traditional security concerns and extend to providing economic security through efforts to strengthen the resilience of worldwide supply chains and strengthen economic engagement between allies.

Invest in alliances

Japan's desire to strengthen its partnership with the United States was largely reciprocated by Washington.

Closer ties are in keeping with those of the Biden administration plan to speculate in alliances as a core element of its foreign policy. The Biden White House was particularly in focus stronger security cooperation across the Indo-Pacific region.

To that end, Biden and Kishida unveiled a joint U.S.-Japan command center and a brand new Japan-U.S.-Australia air missile defense network during their April meeting. Likewise those trilateral meeting with the Philippines The US Coast Guard's improved training for its Asian partners in addition to joint patrols within the South China Sea were presented there.

While the implicit, if not explicit, goal of such collaborative efforts is usually that perceived threat from China The strategy has far-reaching geopolitical implications for regional stability.

By forging alliances between like-minded countries, the United States and Japan are promoting a worldwide system based on the prevailing liberal international order but emphasizing the various visions of democracies and non-democracies. In other words, they seek to create security through distinction – or an “us versus them” strategy – reasonably than through universalism.

The USA is pursuing this goal actively advocated for higher relations between Japan and South Korea — two Democratic U.S. allies deeply divided over reconcile after Japan's colonization of the Korean peninsula within the early twentieth century.

What a Trump victory could mean for Tokyo

But while the U.S. and Japan are in lockstep on many issues affecting the Indo-Pacific region, recent diplomatic spats in Washington — in addition to preparations for the visits — also raise areas of difference that concern Japan.

While Kishida has emphasized the U.S.-Japan economic relationship as a win-win scenario, the Biden administration has focused more on security measures.

In fact, Washington will not be entirely on the identical page as its Asian partners on trade and economic issues.

Biden did it, for instance speak out against the planned purchase of US Steel by the Japanese company Nippon Steel. Biden's reticence resonates a prevailing belief in economic nationalism in Washington, steeped in domestic politics.

But Tokyo's concerns transcend the present U.S. government's reluctance toward Japanese investment.

A possible second Trump presidency could, it’s feared in Tokyoupend the Biden administration's work to revitalize the alliance system within the Indo-Pacific.

It could also cause the US to fall further into economic nationalism. Under Trump, the USA saw Tariffs as a very important foreign policy instrument, while alliances are portrayed as transactional. For example, Trump demanded that Japan quadruple the annual payments that US troops needs to be stationed there.

Even under the Trump administration and to the chagrin of Japan within the USA left the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral trade agreementwhich continued without the US in the shape of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Japan on PR offensive

Japan is starting to hedge against a Biden defeat in November, laying the groundwork for what many in Tokyo hope will likely be a positive relationship with Trump should he grow to be president again.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, formed such a relationship with Trump. And it was notable that it was Abe's former deputy prime minister, Aso, who did this met with Trump in New York to now re-establish a private connection – although Kishida's government described Aso's visit as that of a single lawmaker acting in his own capability.

Still, Kishida knows that it will not be only a Trump presidency that would threaten Japan's interests and goals for the Pacific region. American political elites generally are Tendency more towards isolationism. Meanwhile, the American public increasingly divided and unsure in regards to the advantages of trade and the role the United States should play globally.

During his US visit, Kishida desired to speak not only with the Biden administration, but additionally with Congress – each Democrats and Republicans – in addition to the US economy and the American public.

It was not only a leadership summit but additionally a PR tour.

During his speech to Congress – only the second by a Japanese Prime Minister – Kishida emphasized the necessity for the US to be a trusted ally and to say, “The world needs the United States” and “the people of Japan are at your side to ensure the survival of freedom.”

And during a subsequent visit to North Carolina, where he toured a Toyota electric vehicle battery factory and a HondaJet subsidiary, he reaffirmed the ties between the 2 countries – while emphasizing the positive economic contribution Japan is making to the United States.

Looking for a stable relationship

Japan is embracing its identity as an actively contributing member of the liberal international order. With the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and uncertainty over Washington's global role in the course of the Trump administration, Japan emerged as a number one proponent of preserving and maintaining that order.

But Japan also hopes that the USA will proceed to play a central role.

The high-profile meetings between Japan's political elite and each Biden and Trump show that Tokyo is trying to the US as a reliable partner – within the interests of each regional security and economic prosperity. But that is something that’s making US domestic politics increasingly difficult.