WASHINGTON: Shortly after President Trump mused Friday over imposing tariffs on Japan while sitting alongside the country’s PM Shigeru Ishiba, the Japanese leader was asked by a reporter to reflect on his first meeting with Trump. It was a prime opportunity to respond to Trump’s economic threat. Instead, Ishiba took a different tack – becoming the latest foreign leader to fawn over, rather than flout, the US president.
“I was so excited to see such a celebrity on television,” Ishiba said, prompting Trump to turn to him and smile from ear to ear. “On television he is frightening, and he has a very strong personality, but when I met with him, actually, he was very sincere and very powerful, and with strong will for the US.”
Days before, PM Netanyahu called Trump “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House”. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador made an unusual gesture, proposing that Trump jail migrants in the country illegally – and even convicted US citizens – in its notorious prison complex.
It is not a new strategy. During the first Trump term, President Emmanuel Macron of France gushed over him. Poland offered to rename a US military base Fort Trump. Netanyahu proposed that an Israeli settlement in the Golan Heights be renamed Trump Heights. PM Justin Trudeau of Canada invitedTrump’s daughter Ivanka to take part in a meeting of female business leaders. But by 2018, Trump had imposed tariffs on Canada and called Trudeau “dishonest & weak”. Trump and Macron’s bromance morphed into a feud over the direction of Nato. Trump would later erupt at Netanyahu when he congratulated Biden on his 2020 win.
Elizabeth Shackelford, a former diplomat, described the use flattery as a “fool’s errand”. “Trump doesn’t have any problem cutting people off.”
