KUALA LUMPUR – US President Donald Trump landed on Oct 26 morning in Kuala Lumpur, where he will attend the
in the Malaysian capital – the first stop of his five-day Asian swing through Malaysia, Japan and South Korea.
He was received on the tarmac near the KL airport’s VIP complex by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Home Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
Upon his arrival, a waiting crowd waved the striped flags of the US and Malaysia while Malaysian cultural performers in traditional attire broke into dance. Mr Trump gamely swivelled his hips along to the beat of the music, and punched his arms into the air in sync with Mr Anwar.
He then picked a pair of the national flags from the crowd and posed with them before giving a salute to the performers while waiting for his limousine.
Said Azizi Manaf, 19, a student of the National Craft Institute who was among those picked to greet the President: “It’s hard to believe I saw him with my own eyes.”
Not all in Malaysia – where pro-Gaza sentiment runs high – welcome Mr Trump’s visit.
An anti-Trump protest scheduled at Ampang Park on the morning of Oct 26 was relocated to Merdeka Square after police cordoned off the area, citing safety concerns.
Several truckloads of personnel from the Public Order Reserve Unit and the Kuala Lumpur Special Action Unit were seen near Ampang Park on Oct 26, about 1km from the summit venue.
“I was at Ampang Park but was told by a policeman to leave or risk being arrested. They are not allowing anyone to gather here and warned they would detain anyone who tried, so we decided to relocate,” said a protester, Mr Mythreyar Mutturamalingam, who had travelled from Tanjung Malim, Perak.
“This will definitely reduce the impact we were hoping for,” he added.
Mr Trump’s Malaysia visit is his first appearance in South-east Asia in his second term. During his first term, he visited the Philippines and Vietnam in 2017, and Singapore in 2018, for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
For Malaysia, this is only the third time that a sitting US president has come to visit, and more than a decade since then US President Barack Obama’s visit in 2014. Before that, the only other US president to visit Malaysia was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966.
Malaysia is hosting the 47th Asean Summit and related summits from Oct 26 to 28, attended by leaders from around the region as well as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and
Mr Trump’s visit represents a high watermark for Mr Anwar, who – unlike his predecessors – has taken a keen interest in geopolitics and presented himself as a player in global politics, particularly over the Palestinian cause and the war in Gaza.
Mr Anwar’s close relations with Hamas political leaders have
But the two leaders’ interests converged over the border clash between Thailand and Cambodia in July 2025 that led to at least 43 deaths and displaced some 300,000 people. Both leaders had played a role in getting the two sides to agree to a ceasefire on July 28.
As chairman of Asean, Mr Anwar managed to bring Bangkok and Phnom Penh to the negotiating table in Malaysia in end-July, with Washington and Beijing dispatching envoys. Mr Trump applied pressure on the Cambodians and Thais to make peace by using tariffs as a bargaining tool.
Cambodia and Thailand are
to sustain the peace along their shared border on Oct 26. The signing is to be witnessed by Mr Trump, who had earlier claimed to have “ended eight wars in just eight months” and styled himself as “the President of Peace”. He also said that the deal would be signed “immediately” upon his arrival.
At the same time, protests against Mr Trump’s visit are being organised. On Oct 24, hundreds of protesters, some waving Palestinian flags, gathered outside the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur – close to the venue of the Asean Summit – to denounce his visit.
Some chanted calls to “reject Trump” while holding signs that read “Trump not welcome” and “Hands off Palestine”.
Solidarity for Palestine representative Tian Chua told the crowd at Merdeka Square that Malaysians were exercising their constitutional right to assemble peacefully.
“We are not against Malaysia hosting Asean or its principles of neutrality and peace. But what President Trump represents goes against those values,” he said.
“Israel continues to bomb Gaza despite claims of a ceasefire. That is why we are here, to reject Trump and stand with Malaysians who love peace.”
