Touts "great relationship" with Duterte, stays silent on Philippine drug-war killings

During a bilateral meeting with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Manila, Trump publicly emphasized a "great relationship" with Duterte, whose anti-drug campaign human-rights groups link to thousands of extrajudicial killings. Trump and Duterte ignored shouted reporters' questions about the drug war, and Trump raised no public objection. Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque said human rights "did not arise" in the meeting, while the White House said the subject came up briefly in the context of the drug fight, an account the two sides told differently. Earlier reporting had quoted Trump, in a leaked April 2017 phone-call transcript, congratulating Duterte on an "unbelievable job" against drugs.