President-elect Trump has reportedly invited Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who made a series of controversial comments about President Obama less than two months ago, to visit the White House once he takes over the presidency on Jan. 20.
Trump spoke with Duterte by phone on Friday in what an aide to the Filipino leader later described as a “very engaging, animated” conversation, according to Reuters.
Both men invited each other to visit their countries, and Duterte suggested that Trump should visit the Philippines when it hosts the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summits next year.
Duterte slammed Obama in October after U.S. officials criticized him for likening himself to Hitler in a speech about drug addiction in his home country.
“Respect is important,” Duterte had said in response, while threatening to “break up with America” and focus on the Philippines’ relations with Russia and China.
The Filipino leader also told Obama to “go to hell” for criticizing his anti-drug campaign, which has resulted in the death of more than 3,000 since he took office in May.
“Instead of helping us, the first to criticize is this State Department, so you can go to hell, Mr. Obama, you can go to hell,” he said during a speech in October.
Duterte had kinder words for Trump following his upset victory last month, calling him “the chosen leader of the most powerful country.”
“We don’t have any quarrels. I can always be a friend to anybody especially to a president, a chief executive of another country. He has not meddled in the human rights,” he said of Trump when reporters asked if he expected to get along with the incoming Republican leader during a gathering at the presidential palace in Manila.
The White House on Friday distanced itself from Trump’s invititation to Duterte.
“Obviously, it’s going to be up to the president-elect to decide which foreign leaders he meets with so we’re going to leave it to him to make those decisions,” deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz told reporters. “But obviously it carries a certain amount of weight when the president travels abroad to meet with his counterparts around the world.”
