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Malaysia is preparing to host the ASEAN Summit, a gathering meant to showcase Southeast Asia’s unity, resilience, and shared vision for peace. Yet one development threatens to overshadow this spirit: the planned attendance of United States President Donald J. Trump.
This is no ordinary diplomatic visit. To welcome Trump with open arms would be to legitimise a leader whose policies and rhetoric have actively enabled genocide and emboldened impunity. Malaysia, with its longstanding moral leadership on Palestine and justice, cannot afford to betray its principles. ASEAN, too, risks losing credibility if it allows itself to become a stage for Trump’s divisive politics.
The charge is not rhetorical. Trump’s first presidency set the stage for the devastation we see today in Gaza. By unconditionally aligning the U.S. with the Netanyahu government, he removed all remaining checks on Israeli aggression.
He relocated the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem in defiance of international law, recognised Israel’s illegal annexations, and cut humanitarian aid to Palestinians. At the United Nations, his administration shielded Israel from accountability at every turn. These actions gave Israel carte blanche to escalate military campaigns. What followed was not only occupation, but mass atrocities—civilians killed in their tens of thousands, entire neighbourhoods destroyed, and an entire people denied dignity and survival.
Now, in his second term, Trump has doubled down. At this year’s UN General Assembly, he called for war to stop “at once,” yet stopped short of criticising Israel’s relentless bombardment. He condemned Hamas but offered no recognition of Israel’s systematic violations of international law. Instead, he boasted of having ended “seven wars” and suggested that he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize. The dissonance could not be sharper: while Gaza buries its children, Trump presents himself as a peacemaker.
Worse still, his administration has suspended most visitor visas for Palestinians, effectively barring them—including senior officials—from entering the U.S. for education, medical treatment, or even to address the UN. A country that silences Palestinians while shielding Israel cannot credibly claim to lead peace efforts.
Malaysia has always stood firmly with Palestine. At the UN, in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and in bilateral forums, we have defended the rights of Palestinians as a moral duty. This is part of our national identity.
To allow Trump to step onto Malaysian soil now, while his administration continues to legitimise Israel’s atrocities, would undo decades of moral leadership. It would provide him with a photo opportunity to disguise complicity in genocide as statesmanship.
The figures speak for themselves. Since October 2023, more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, nearly a third of them children. Over 50,000 children have been killed or injured in less than two years. Gaza’s health system is collapsing, hospitals overcrowded with a “tsunami of patients,” while one in five children suffers acute malnutrition. This is not a time for protocol; it is a time for principle.
Supporters of Trump’s attendance will argue that ASEAN must engage all global powers, whoever sits in the Oval Office. Yet neutrality is not the same as blindness. ASEAN’s credibility depends on being more than a passive arena for great power rivalry.
Trump’s presence would distort this balance. His foreign policy is openly transactional: allies pressured, rivals demonised, and cooperation reduced to bargaining chips. He has a record of forcing countries to choose sides, undermining ASEAN’s cohesion and independence.
Hosting him risks signalling that ASEAN is indifferent to genocide. At a time when 156 of 193 UN member states have recognised Palestinian statehood, the United States remains among a small handful of holdouts. Washington vetoed Palestine’s UN membership bid, insisting that statehood could come only through “direct negotiations”—negotiations that Israel, of course, has no interest in pursuing. To welcome Trump despite this record is to ignore the global majority’s demand for justice.
On 29 September, Trump met Netanyahu in Washington to launch a “20-point Gaza Peace Proposal.” Marketed as a roadmap to reconstruction, it places Gaza under a temporary technocratic committee overseen by an international “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump himself, with figures like Tony Blair (another serial genocide enabler) in tow.
But the plan is one-sided. It demands demilitarisation in Gaza while ignoring accountability for Israel’s war crimes. It treats Gaza as a territory to be managed, not as part of a sovereign Palestine. It risks institutionalising Israeli domination under the veneer of international legitimacy. As many observers noted, this is less a peace plan than a geopolitical tool.
Malaysia must not lend legitimacy to such theatre.
Within Malaysia, calls to rescind Trump’s invitation have grown. Even the former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also appealed directly, warning that hosting Trump would stain Malaysia’s integrity.
Notably, rejecting Trump at ASEAN does not mean disengaging with Washington. We can engage the U.S. Congress, businesses, and civil society without legitimising a president who enables genocide.
Worse still is Trump’s structural weakness: he cannot guarantee any agreement he puts his name to. EMIR Research has previously argued (refer to “Zionism at the Edge: The Terminal Overreach of a Fading Project”, “From Tweets to Tectonics: NATO’s Void and the Global South’s Rise”) that Trump is sabotaged by the U.S. military-industrial complex and its European allies, who thrive on endless war. His peace promises collapse the very moment they are spoken.
The most recent example came in Qatar on 9 September, 2025. Under Trump’s personal invitation, Hamas negotiators travelled for talks. Israeli jets then struck, killing guards and relatives while the negotiators narrowly survived. The strike occurred despite Qatar hosting the largest U.S. base in the region and investing in American missile defence systems. The message was unmistakable: Trump is not in control of U.S. power, let alone Israel’s actions. His guarantees collapse in real time.
For Malaysia and ASEAN, this means that engaging Trump is not just morally bankrupt—it is strategically futile. Agreements made in his presence cannot be trusted, because the machine around him continues on autopilot.
Beyond principle, hosting Trump carries real risks. His confrontational stance towards China could drag ASEAN into a zero-sum conflict. His return to protectionist tariffs threatens regional economies. And his unapologetic defence of Netanyahu guarantees protests across Malaysia and the wider Muslim world. What, then, do we gain? Little more than theatrics. What do we risk? Our credibility, ASEAN’s neutrality, and Malaysia’s moral authority.
There is also the question of dignity. Trump does not come to engage; he comes to posture. His visits are performances in which he casts himself as the world’s chief negotiator while others are reduced to vassals. Malaysia and ASEAN must refuse this script. The world is already moving towards a fairer multipolar order. To accept Trump’s theatre is to step backwards into subservience at the very moment when the Global South is beginning to speak with its own voice.
Malaysia has long punched above its weight diplomatically, not through force but through moral clarity. Hosting Trump would undo that legacy. Instead, Malaysia should reaffirm leadership across the Global South by saying clearly: genocide enablers are not welcome.
The ASEAN Summit must be about unity, cooperation, and resilience—not about offering a platform to a man whose record shows contempt for international law. Malaysia must act decisively. Trump must not be invited. And if he insists on coming, Malaysia must have the courage to say: not here, not now, not ever.
Dr Rais Hussin is the Founder of EMIR Research, a think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research.
