1 ISSUE: 2019 No. 14 ISSN 2335-6677 RESEARCHERS AT ISEAS – YUSOF ISHAK INSTITUTE ANALYSE CURRENT EVENTS Singapore | 14 March 2019 The Trump Administration and Southeast Asia: The Hanoi Summit and US Policy in Southeast Asia Malcolm Cook and Ian Storey* EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  The second Trump-Kim summit had generally positive outcomes for Southeast Asia and especially the host Vietnam.  Although the Trump administration remains focused on Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia figures prominently in US thinking on meeting the security challenges posed by China.  Southeast Asian economies with a visible trade surplus with the US are likely to avoid most US trade retaliation during the first Trump administration.  Rhetorically the US is committed to ASEAN centrality. Yet the prospects are not good for President Trump’s participation in the ASEAN-US Summit and the East Asia Summit in Thailand in November 2019. *Malcolm Cook and Ian Storey are Senior Fellows at the ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute