A DAP assemblyperson in Perak wonders whether US President Donald Trump’s decision to skip Malaysia in his Asia tour next month has anything to do with the backlash he received for welcoming Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to the US last month.

Pasir Pinji assemblyperson Howard Lee noted that Trump was not reciprocating Najib’s visit, despite Najib stating in the White House that he wanted to strengthen the US economy.

“This could well be Trump's outright snub of Najib due to the backlash the former received for welcoming Najib, who is widely reported in the American media as a corrupt foreign leader misusing the American economy as a money laundry for his kleptocratic practices,” Lee said in a statement today.

Trump will visit Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Hawaii from Nov 3 to 14.

He is expected to emphasise his “America First” agenda on trade at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Vietnam and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in the Philippines.

“Trump does not need to see Najib to do that. Malaysian taxpayers' money was splurged to pay for Najib to stay at the Trump hotel, for Najib to voluntarily plead allegiance to 'America First',” added Lee.

Lee, who is also president of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY), noted that the Trump administration needed all the help it could get as its key agenda now was to get regional leaders on its side to rein in North Korea.

“Not visiting Malaysia clearly means that Najib is insignificant to Trump's agenda.

“Najib's propaganda fanfare about Trump calling him 'a friend' seems to have been unravelled. It seems that the US$20 billion worth of friendship is unreciprocated by Trump,” he added.

Najib was invited to the White House on Sept 12. He had said that the invitation was proof that Malaysia was a "rising star" and claimed that Trump considered him a "friend".

In his opening statement during the meeting at the White House cabinet room, Najib made several “value propositions” to Trump and promised to help "strengthen" the US economy.