from November 2017:
Trump Lauds 'Great Relationship' With Duterte in ManilaThe New York Times
HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
NOV. 13, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/world/asia/trump-duterte-philippines.html. . . The two presidents declined to answer questions during brief remarks to reporters at the start of the meeting. As they sat side by side, Mr. Trump and Mr. Duterte projected a friendly dynamic, ribbing members of the news media as they prepared to speak privately.
"We've had a great relationship," Mr. Trump said, heaping praise on Mr. Duterte's stewardship of the summit, including an elaborate gala dinner on Sunday where they were seen chatting animatedly and a set of cultural performances on Monday. "This has been very successful."
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White House officials have said that Mr. Trump has a "warm rapport" with Mr. Duterte, with whom he has spoken and exchanged letters since taking office, and that he wants to mend the American-Philippine alliance after strains during the Obama administration.
"President Trump specifically said he has always been a friend of the Duterte administration, unlike the previous administrations of the United States," Mr. Roque said on Monday. "He stressed that he can be counted upon as a friend of the Duterte administration."
Mr. Trump raised eyebrows in April by inviting Mr. Duterte to the White House during what American officials called a "very friendly conversation" on the phone in which the president praised the Philippine leader's efforts to rid his country of drugs.
Mr. Duterte has been accused of ordering thousands of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in what human rights groups condemn as a bloody campaign that has targeted many who may have nothing to do with narcotics. . . .
