Donald Trump, international businessman and world-class dealmaker, had to be dissuaded by aides from calling Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the middle of the night, Tokyo time. This happened more than once. Trump has also, in internal White House meetings, pronounced the names of the countries Nepal and Bhutan as nipple and button, although he outdid himself by referring to Namibia as “Nambia” in public.
But it’s when Trump’s aides are anonymously trying to defend him that things get really scary:
Trump did impress some of his own aides in the meeting, however. “He did a very good job of saying Cote D’Ivoire,” said one.
Oh, well, he did a good job saying the name of a country! A French name, no less. Three cheers for Trump! There’s a president for the ages. Trump’s aides also explained that he does understand the concept of time zones, for real:
A White House official also says Trump, as a former jet-setting global businessman, understands how time zones work but doesn’t dwell on such details when he wants to talk to a foreign leader. “He’s the president of the United States. He’s not stopping to add up” time differences, the official said. “I don’t think anybody would expect him or Obama or Bush or Clinton or anybody to do that. That’s the whole reason you have a staff to say ‘yes, we’ll set it up,’ and then they find a time that makes most sense.”
Yeah … but he’s a jet-setting former businessman whose aides are apparently proud he has the basic familiarity with French pronunciation any wealthy American could learn just from reading menus at fancy restaurants. And sure, maybe Obama or Bush or Clinton didn’t know exactly what time it was in Japan at 3 PM ET, but they, unlike Trump, probably had a general idea that it was a bad time to call.
Unsurprisingly, other sources paint it as a little more than just “not stopping to add up” time differences. Wanting to call someone in Japan and not stopping to think about time zones might be a mistake you’d make once, but a source tells Politico that with Trump, the issue came up on “a constant basis.” Just one more reminder that this is a stunningly ignorant man who really does think the world revolves around him.