"He's a wheeler-dealer, our president, needless to say, and he's kind of cutting these deals — but he has scared these people, and he's leveraged American bargaining power."

US stocks are floating near all-time highs as Wall Street maintains cautious optimism that Washington might ink more trade deals, avoiding a worst-case scenario of extraordinarily high tariffs and enabling the resilient economy to continue chugging along.

On his own terms, it could now be said that the aggressive approach by the US President is yielding tangible results.

Japan's top tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, the Asahi newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Japan's embattled prime minister Shigeru Ishiba, fresh off a crushing defeat in upper house elections over the weekend, will not be in a position of strength to negotiate a favorable trade deal with the U.S., analysts said.