As you might know, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is in the U.S. this week — specifically, its capital, Washington D.C.:

He's there for his first official visit to U.S. President Donald Trump, and will meet him as well and Vice President Mike Pence at the White House, although you might recall they first met in July this year and shared their first handshake in Germany:

But okay, we digress. So people have said he's in for a tough time balancing US and China relations, coming on the back of a pretty successful meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, as well as some very powerful officials who will likely be watching his public statements and interactions with the American leader very closely.

Plus, of course we also know that regarding Singapore and business, Trump yanked America's end of the Trans-Pacific Partnership — something PM Lee personally campaigned for quite enthusiastically, tbh — so at least on that front, it's also tricky between them.

But hey, even prior to him meeting President Trump on Monday evening/Tuesday morning (Singapore time, from midnight Tuesday onwards), we have three good reasons — that we are pretty sure Trump should be well aware of — to believe the businessman in our American counterpart would be inclined to cut a deal, or perhaps a few, with us, while PM Lee is there:

1. Donald Trump is friends with the boss of our iconic Marina Bay Sands.

See that dude with the dark hair being helped by the people around him in the photo below? That's Sheldon Adelson.

The picture above also shows Adelson attending Trump's presidential inauguration ceremony in January this year — indeed, he is one of Trump's biggest supporters, and also a good friend of his.

He gave about US$35 million to the political action committee (PAC) that supported Trump's bid for the U.S. presidency during the 2016 election.

In fact, the casino magnate donated US$5 million to the committee handling Trump's inauguration events.

But yeah, here's the link to Singapore: Adelson also happens to be the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns MBS.

So yes, it's possible that when Trump is told about Singapore, he may think of his pal Sheldon and that nice looking building he built there.

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2. PM Lee is one of the few world leaders who never dumped on Trump before or after he became President.

During a joint press conference with then-U.S. President Barack Obama on Aug. 2, 2016, PM Lee was asked the following question:

"Prime Minister Lee... You’ve mentioned the strong bipartisan links that Singapore has had with nine different U.S. Presidents from both sides of the political divide, a very strong record there. How would we address a U.S. leader which adopts the stance that it's more closed off, more anti-globalisation, for example, if we see that in November?"

And this was PM Lee's reply:

"As for what we do over bipartisan links, if there's a U.S. leader who is more closed off and wants to turn inward, I don't think this is the right forum or indeed there is any right forum for me to talk about U.S. politics in public at this moment.

We will work with whoever is the U.S. administration, whichever party. We've worked with five Republican and four Democratic administrations. And our experience of American elections, presidential elections, has been that many pressures build up during the election campaign.

And after the elections, in a calmer, cooler atmosphere, positions are re-thought, strategies are nuanced, and a certain balance is kept in the direction of the ship of state. It doesn't turn completely upside down.

The Americans take pride in having a system with checks and balances so that it is not so easy to do things, but it is not so easy to completely mess things up. And we admire that and sometimes we depend upon that."

In fact, he continued to be diplomatic about Trump without sounding hypocritical.

When asked about his views on Trump during his latest interview with CNBC, PM Lee said,

“I think he is confident of himself. There are things which he wants to do. He has a very set view of the world and of people. And we will work with him. He has been elected, he has a mandate from the American voters and he represents the United States of America.”

So hey, not bad at all.

And finally...

3. The United States enjoys a trade surplus with Singapore.

Trump has stressed that one of the biggest problems with the U.S. economy is related to its big trade deficits.

So he continues to criticise countries like China and Mexico, which had among the top two largest trade deficits with U.S..

If that's the case, Trump will have no issue with Singapore.

According to The Straits Times, trade and investment with Singapore supports more than 250,000 American jobs.

ST also noted that the U.S. has maintained a trade surplus with Singapore since 2001, which totalled US$18.3 billion (S$24.9 billion) last year.

Things are also looking good for this year.

According data from the U.S. Census, Singapore is ranked sixth in terms of countries with trade surpluses in terms of goods, up to August 2017:

You can also see from the table above that Singapore is the top buyer of U.S. goods among the ASEAN countries.

So if those aren't good enough reasons for Trump to cash in on deals with Singapore — Boeing planes and U.S. military equipment, anyone? — we don't know what are.

Top photo via Getty Images