PoliticoDonald Trump’s diplomatic learning curve: time zones, ‘Nambia’ and ‘Nipple’
The president has often perplexed foreign officials and his own aides as he learns how to deal with the world beyond America's borders
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Daniel Lippman on politico.com on August 13, 2018.
Several times in the first year of his administration, US President Donald Trump wanted to call Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the middle of the afternoon. But there was a problem. Mid-afternoon in Washington is the middle of the night in Tokyo – when Abe would be fast asleep.
Trump’s aides had to explain the issue, which one diplomatic source said came up on “a constant basis”, but it wasn’t easy.
“He wasn’t great with recognising that the leader of a country might be 80 or 85 years old and isn’t going to be awake or in the right place at 10:30 or 11pm their time,” said a former Trump NSC official. “When he wants to call someone, he wants to call someone. He’s more impulsive that way. He doesn’t think about what time it is or who it is,” added a person close to Trump.
In the case of Abe and others, Trump’s NSC staffers would advise him, for instance, that “the time is messed up, it’s 1 o’clock in the morning” and promise to put the call on his calendar for a more diplomatically appropriate time.
Former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster would assure him: “We can try to set it up.”
Trump’s desire to call world leaders at awkward hours is just one of many previously unreported diplomatic faux-pas President Trump has made since assuming the office, which go beyond telephone etiquette to include misconceptions, mispronunciations and awkward meetings.