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PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump struck a hopeful note about U.S. trade with Japan on Wednesday at a lunch with the Asian nation’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, saying he thought the United States would soon be able to trim its trade deficit with the country.

“We have a very big deficit and we’re going to weed that down, hopefully get our balance at some point in the not-too-distant future,” Trump said at a photo opportunity before the meal, which he said would focus on trade. Trump was flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and the White House’s economic director Larry Kudlow.

“We will I believe at the end of a very short period of time be able to do certain things. I know they’re ordering large numbers of airplanes ... in the tens of billions of dollars.”