Trump Visit Met by Popular Protests in Malaysia Over US Backing of Israel

By Abdul Rahman – Oct 27, 2025

The Malaysian government also faced condemnation from protesters who criticized its decision to invite Trump to the 47th ASEAN summit despite US attempts to destabilize the region.

Hundreds of people took to the streets in Malaysia on Sunday, October 26, to oppose US President Donald Trump’s visit to the country. Protesters raised slogans in support of the Palestinian resistance and condemned US support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Protesters also opposed various interventionist policies followed by the US across the globe with chants of “down with imperialism” and demanded Malaysia break its ties with it.

The call for the demonstration was made by the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), along with several other organizations who gathered at Kuala Lumpur’s Independence Square and Ampang Park with banners and posters denouncing imperialism and shouting slogans in support of the Palestinian people.

Protesters also formed a people’s tribunal to try Trump for his role in the Gaza genocide and other war crimes across the world. The tribunal sentenced Trump and people threw shoes at Trump’s cut outs.

Trump was visiting Malaysia for two days to attend the 47th ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur. This is his first trip to South-East Asia since assuming the presidency for the second time. He also met Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for bilateral talks.

“US leaders who endorse and fund the zionist regime’s genocide against the Palestinian people and impose economic sanctions on countries like Venezuela must not be received with red carpets or diplomatic honors” Bawani KS, senior leader of the PSM, told Peoples Dispatch.

“Welcoming those complicit in crimes against humanity undermines the global struggle for justice and dignity. Justice for Palestine is not negotiable. Silence in complicity,” she further said.

In a joint statement issued by the PSM and several civil society and student groups, they demanded that the US stop supporting the genocidal regime in Israel and stop its interference across the globe, including in the South-East Asia region.

They demanded that the Malaysian government cut all diplomatic ties with the US, including its joint military exercises, such as RIMPAC, until it ends its ties with genocidal Israel and other imperialistic interventions across the world.

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Open letter to Trump
PSM chairperson M Jeyakumar Devaraj wrote an open letter to Trump pointing out how his support to Israeli genocide in Gaza led to an additional killing of over 20,000 Palestinians since January this year.

Trump’s refusal to undo Joe Biden’s policies of supplying weapons to the Zionist regime, which it used to kill Palestinians and destroy Gaza, and his administration’s repeated use of veto power to stop UN Security Council resolutions demanding a ceasefire and humanitarian aid emboldened the Zionist regime to carry out its genocide without repercussion, the letter notes.

The PSM letter to Trump also underlined that the Malaysians are protesting against US hegemonic politics and its persistent interference in other country’s affairs, defying their sovereignty and international laws.

“From Cuba to Venezuela, Iran, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan we have witnessed how the US has unilaterally imposed painful economic sanctions or funded armed insurrections just because these countries had a different vision of how to develop their societies,” the letter says.

Every country, however small, has the right to determine its own course of development, PSM points out, asserting that the economic sanctions and military interventions should only be decided by a super-majority in the United Nations and not by the US, together with its “coalition of the willing.”

The letter also warns against growing US aggression vis-a-vis China fearing that this may lead to military conflict in the South China Sea and destabilize the region.

Claiming that “Malaysia, together with our ASEAN neighbors, have long proclaimed this region as a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOFAN)” the letter warns against America’s “constant needling of China” as it may lead to an Eastern Europe-like situation where, pushed by NATO, “the Russian leadership, believing that they faced an existential threat, decided to respond militarily.”

The letter demanded the immediate cessation of all such provocations and a resolution of the differences, if any, through peaceful means.

The war in Ukraine, apart from killing hundreds, has also created economic hardship for people and aided in the popularity of the political right wing, leading to sustained social unrest in Europe. South-East Asia will not like to turn into one such region, the PSM letter to Trump says.

(Peoples Dispatch)