BBM meets the mogul: the hunt for a big, beautiful deal
By: Rodney Jaleco| Published: July 18, 2025
Reading Time: 5 minutes
WASHINGTON D.C. — Pres. Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr. will have tough acts to follow when he comes a-calling on Pres. Trump at the White House next week. His counterparts and other top officials from around the globe have dangled a Nobel nomination, cooed “Daddy”, offered a “Palace in the Sky” jumbo jet, dazzled him with their English – so although the topic is often about tariffs, that’s seldom the headlines that come out of the Oval Office.
Malacañang announced that Pres. Marcos will be in the United States from July 20-22 after State Secretary Mario Rubio disclosed at the end of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia on July 11 that he would be visiting in a few days.
Palace spokesperson Claire Castro confirmed the president’s US sortie but not the actual White House meeting, which indicates final arrangements were still going on. “We are working with the US State Department to finalize details of the visit,” a Dept. of Foreign Affairs (DFA) statement said on July 11.
It will be his 5th trip to the US as president and prospectively, his first meeting with Pres. Trump at the White House (he’s been there twice before to meet with Pres. Joe Biden).
He will follow a long list of world leaders who traveled to Washington for various reasons. Prime Ministers Narendra Modi of India and Shigeru Ishiba of Japan came mainly to talk about tariffs and regional security as key parts of an anti-China coalition; King Abdullah of Jordan and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu raised Middle East concerns, especially Gaza and the Iranian threat; French Pres. Emmanuel Macron and British PM Keir Starmer talked tariff as well as Ukraine and Russia.
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Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky had a disastrous meeting in the Oval Office – which illustrated how not to deal with Trump – but Pres. Nayib Bukele of El Salvador got a chummier welcome after he offered to take in undocumented immigrants deported from the US. South African Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa apologized he couldn’t afford to gift his US host with a Boeing 747 similar to what Qatar gave Pres. Trump. Still, nothing could quite beat Mr. Netanyahu’s nominating Pres. Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Pres. Marcos is expected to travel with his economic team, including his special assistant for investment and the economy Frederick Go, who’s leading tariff negotiations with the US. The White House threatened to clamp a 20% tariff on Philippine exports if no agreement is reached by Aug. 1.
The Philippines was initially assigned a 17% rate when Pres. Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs last April but was frozen until two weeks ago, ostensibly to allow for negotiations, when the deadline was pushed back to August. In the meantime, the US slapped a 10% tariff on Philippine goods.
Philippine exports to the US – mostly semi-conductors, textiles and coconut oil – reached $14.2 billion against imports – mainly food, machinery and raw materials for semi-conductors – valued at $9.3 billion in 2024.
Pres. Marcos is expected not only to try to convince Pres. Trump to lower – if not forego altogether – his tariffs on Philippine exports but also push for a Free Trade Agreement, something the country has been working on for years.
He may have several aces on his sleeves – perhaps foremost is the Philippine expanding role in the strategic defense of the Indo-Pacific against China. He may also play the immigration card – there are an estimated 300,000 undocumented Filipinos in the US or working to lift ownership restrictions on US investments, particularly in public utilities, defense or something that might pique Mr. Trump’s interest, gambling.
Pres. Marcos could also promise to accelerate implementation of US modular nuclear reactor projects or offer to jail some of the deportees from Trump’s immigration crackdown to try to sweeten the pot and get to a deal that gives him something to crow about to supporters.
Pres. Trump is showman, salesman and businessman rolled into one; he is obsessed with closing the deal but also flourishes in the performance. Almost everyone now understands that the final product matters less than the admiration he gets standing beside it. And here Mr. Marcos may have a leg up – Filipinos seem to have an inherent talent for making others look good.
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