August 13, 2018

"In one case, Trump, while studying a briefer’s map of South Asia ahead of a 2017 meeting with India’s prime minister, mispronounced Nepal as 'nipple' and laughingly referred to Bhutan as 'button,” according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting."

From "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" (Politico).

Also:
"He wasn’t great with recognizing 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 11 p.m. 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.
AND: I can't believe that Trump's impulse to call somebody at 11:00 at night is going to be directed at any of the 80 and over world leaders.

Think about it: You're Trump. You want to call somebody up and talk about the fate of the world, somebody in a position of power like you and capable of doing something to the world, and it's late at night. Who would you call?

By the way, of the elected world leaders, Trump himself is the oldest (at age 72), so who would this elderly leader even be? King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud? He's 82. Do you picture Trump at 11 at night feeling like just calling him up? Hey, Salman.

Even older are the Prime Minister of Malaysia (the oldest, at 93), Queen Elizabeth, the President of Tunisia, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea, the Emir of Kuwait, the  Governor-General of the Bahamas (Dame Marguerite Pindling, 86), the Governor-General of Belize, the President of Cameroon, the Emperor of Japan, and the President of Lebanon. Who among them would you call late at night? Do you call the home phone number? I assume Trump has all the home phone numbers. At least Dame Marguerite Pindling is in his time zone, but I bet she doesn't pick up after 9 p.m.

97 comments:

rhhardin said...

That's not nipple but a accent syllable shift away from the French preference to the American.

Say nipple with the accent on the second syllable and see.

tim maguire said...

Yeah, never mind the results of the meetings, let's just focus on the juvenile sense of humor behind closed doors. Is anyone surprised that he giggles when someone says "duty"?

Jaq said...

Well, he should send our zombie army of corpse men to sort that mess immediately!

There is little doubt that Hillary had any problem pronouncing these countries as long as their checks cleared.

rhhardin said...

I forget what the problem with Nepal is. Charging mountain climbers too much.

Ann Althouse said...

"Say nipple with the accent on the second syllable and see."

False. You get what sounds like "pull," which is not a way to pronounce P-A-L, which can only be "pal" (as in friend) or "pahl" (rhymes with doll).

HipsterVacuum said...

"Look at this country!"

https://youtu.be/UfuWvgaAjQQ

Michael K said...

The man who has built hotels all over the world doesn't know Geography. Git it.

rhhardin said...

Well Trump isn't going to say pull for pal either. They're just commenting on the accent shift by adding a vowel shift.

Jaq said...

I am of the belief that anybody who is 100% qualified for the job of POTUS shouldn't be trusted with it.

Wendybar said...

Good thing everybody from all 57 states can laugh at this. Even Navy Corpsmen!!

Big Mike said...

If true, that's still a step up from a president who thought there were 57 states and didn't know how to pronounce corpsman.

But, frankly, this reads like more fake news to me. I don't know whether the alleged sources are lying or Politico is lying, but that's my hypothesis.

BamaBadgOR said...

This is news? This is blog-worthy? Maybe only to show what "journalists" are reduced to "reporting."

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

Anonymous sources

OK. Sure.

Because they have never lied to us before about what their "Sources say"

John Henry

daskol said...

he's from Queens

daskol said...

they talk kinda funny there

dreams said...

Well, If Trump has ever watched CNBC, I bet he knows about Peyronie's disease.

MikeR said...

Amazing that such an incompetent idiot is going to be the one who ends the Korean War and wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

Fernandinande said...

“Politico couldn't find anyone to quote on the horribleness of Trump in the Era of Trump," said one person familiar with the publication, "at least not anyone with a name. So they made up some clickbait which Trump haters can pretend to believe, but they forgot to mention the Russians again and again."

Tommy Duncan said...

Do they speak Austrian in Nepal?

tcrosse said...

What's with people who pronounce Chile as CHEE-lay but don't pronounce France as Fwonce or Germany as Deutschland?

Sebastian said...

"By the way, of the elected world leaders, Trump himself is the oldest (at age 72), so who would this elderly leader even be?"

Hmm. A fake leak turned into fake news?

Dave Begley said...

How in the world does crap like this continue to leak out?

Obama actually said we have 57 states and he thought Austria had its own language. I bet there was plenty more but nothing bad leaked about Barack, The One We Have Waited For.

TreeJoe said...

I'd like to do an analysis on maybe the top 20 news publications over the past 40 years and their use of anonymous sources vs. quoted sources on their front pages/top 3 pages.

Dave Begley said...

Another reason to hate the Fake News.

Fernandinande said...

King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

Please. "King" is such a smelly word.

But in spite of that, S-Arabia has identified Canada as the world's worst oppressor of women and even threatened a terrorist attack against Canada in retaliation for Canadians talking about S-Arabia.

Rory said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bob Boyd said...

I don't think Trump would have problem waking another leader in the middle of the night if he thought it would throw said leader off his game a bit and help Trump get whatever it is he wants. And I don't have a problem with Trump doing that.
Being leader of a nation is a hard job. Suck it up, buttercup. Get you some diet Coke and brace yourself for the Trump era.

Rory said...

"...who would this elderly leader even be?"

The Pope.

Ralph L said...

When Inspector Clouseau says Nepal, it sounds like nipple.

Bob Boyd said...

"...who would this elderly leader even be?"

Nancy Pelosi.

Ann Althouse said...

"This is news? This is blog-worthy? Maybe only to show what "journalists" are reduced to "reporting.""

Exactly. I am observing the journalism.

Hagar said...

Journalism as a disease?

tcrosse said...

Your Excellency, it's Donald Trump on line 3. He wants to know if you have Prince Albert in the can.

Michael K said...

I bet there was plenty more but nothing bad leaked about Barack,

He also complained that we did not have enough Arab speakers in Afghanistan, a country that does not speak Arabic.

Danno said...

I am sure that Donald Trump would not take time off of his late night tweeting and the gorilla channel to call some head of state.

dreams said...

I like this observation.

"Short had other interests in 2016. He voted I suppose, but for whom, he does not mention. I found his comments about the president intriguing.

"Neither our pundits nor our political class may be prepared to acknowledge as much, but in the short time in which Trump has held the presidency, he has done his country more 'essential service' than the last three presidents combined," Short wrote.

"Liberating the nation from the regulatory tutelage in which his statist predecessor bound it, reforming the tax code, positioning the United States to attain economic-growth rates of 3 to 4 percent, appointing Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court (with Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation pending in September), appointing federal judges across the country who will uphold (not rewrite) our laws, securing our hitherto unsecured southern border with Mexico, putting China on notice that their unfair trade practices will no longer fly, and initiating talks to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, with or without the cooperation of Kim Jong-un — these are all steps in the right direction.

"They are also proof that there is an inspired maverick in Trump, and it is on this aspect of his subject that Black focuses in his insightful study.""

https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-detached-view-trump.html#more

Danno said...

Tcrosse, very glad I didn't have covfefe in my mouth with your last one!

Lucien said...

Remember when President Johnson used to call Laos “Lo-Ass”?

The Kennedies never did that.

Ralph L said...

How does the Old World keep up with the US if they're heading to bed or asleep when we're still raging on? Answer: they don't.

glenn said...

I don’t much care what Trump calls Nepal as long as blue collar America gets their jobs back. Up to here with some smug logroller telling me why not.

Ann Althouse said...

Remember when John F. Kennedy couldn't say "Indiana"?

Temujin said...

On the other hand, he can read a spread sheet, something most others in Washington clearly cannot do.

Bob Boyd said...

Life in the mountains makes the Nepalis hard.

tcrosse said...

Young woman from Iowa enrolls in a writing program at Harvard.
At a faculty tea, an English Department doyenne asks her where she hails from.
"Iowa", she replies.
"Well, my dear, at Harvard we pronounce it 'Ohio'".

Andrew said...

I'm sure, on the receiving end, Trump would take a late night call if he beloved it benefited the country's interests.

When does the guy sleep anywwy? He's almost 30 years older than I am, and I don't have half his stamina.

Curious George said...

None of this would have been a problem for Hillary. She would be passed out drunk long before 11 PM.

Ironclad said...

And the same "brilliant" analysts pronounce Qatar as Kut-Tar when it's very much more like Gutt-ar with a G crossed with a Q.

But the Corpse-men know better.

DanTheMan said...

He made fun of the names of other countries?
Clearly that's treason. Impeach!

Browndog said...

If Amarosa didn't record it, it didn't happen.

Bruce Hayden said...

"He also complained that we did not have enough Arab speakers in Afghanistan, a country that does not speak Arabic"

To be fair to St Obama, my understanding is that worship In Islam is in Arabic, just like it is in Hebrew for Jews and used to be in mispronounced Latin by Roman Catholics.

Bob Boyd said...

Obama pronounced Taliban "tolly bon" and the media loved him for it. But the war goes.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Are these the same sources who reported that the president sits six inches from the TV screen and talks to it while he watches the gorilla channel? ....Fake News!

Bruce Hayden said...

To be realistic, probably the leaders of Russia and China are the only national leaders who wouldn't happily take Trump's call any time of the day. When the US has states with a higher GDP than most of the countries in the world, and the most powerful military (despite 8 years of deliberate sabatogue by Obama and his team)in the world, it usually isn't a question of when do you agree to take his calls, but rather, when he says jump, the response being "how high?" For the most part, they take his calls when they receive ve them, and feel honored to have come to his attention.

Ralph L said...

Bruce, are you saying Obama wanted to spy on their mosques? They won't even do that here.

Jason said...

Bet he fucking knows how to say "corpsman."

Michael K said...

my understanding is that worship In Islam is in Arabic,

Mine is that most Muslims memorize the Quran and do not speak Arabic in conversation.

He was complaining that Arabic translators were not being transferred to Afghanistan as we pulled out of Iraq.

Michael K said...

These stories are more evidence that Washington is a pit of vipers.

What NSC staffer was the source? Of course we will never know.

DanTheMan said...

>>mispronounced Latin by Roman Catholics

Good thing we have those original Roman Empire recordings!

:)

Drago said...

I'm betting it took more than a plurality of the 100 "journolist" editorial teams to decide this was "big" and "totally not fake" news.

JPS said...

Bob Boyd, 8:47:

Also Pakistan was Pah-ki-stahn. Yet for some reason Afghanistan was Aff-GAN-i-stan.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

tcrosse said...What's with people who pronounce Chile as CHEE-lay but don't pronounce France as Fwonce or Germany as Deutschland?

SNL: Enchilada

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Man, the world is rapidly aging. I can remember way back when we all argued over which candidate would be most able to effectively respond to "that 3AM phone call," but now we're worried about our President ruffling feathers by calling after 10pm.

Jengis Khan says what?

Trumpit said...

"Laughingstock" is a word often used to describe Schlump and his deplorable devotees. Schlump is not known for his largess, rather for his large ass on display during his awful golf swing. Chairs!

Ralph L said...

I thought he said "Poh-ki-stahn."

WisRich said...

Ralph L said...
I thought he said "Poh-ki-stahn."

8/13/18, 9:20 AM
----

Don't forget Toli-Bon.

Anonymous said...

And this doesn't get the Bullshit tag?!?

Darrell said...

I don't trust any of these unsourced stories. Not a word.

Francisco D said...

Well before Trump was in the picture, journalists got together over drinks at the end of the day. They would gossip and things got out of hand as the booze intake increased.

Later they would write up what they learned from their conversations with "anonymous sources." Funny thing is that their sources were always negative about Republicans and conservative Democrats (an extinct species for those who are too young to remember). It seems that there are no anonymous sources when it comes to leftwing Democrats

JAORE said...

I have come to the point where phrases like, "according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting" falls into the likely BS pile.

Two (geez, not one, but TWO!) "sources".

Unnamed, of course.

"With knowledge of".... Doesn't even claim they were there. Might have been, might not have been. And that presumes they are real at all.

I can not say this is fake news. But I can say this is dubious reporting and not news at all.

Trumpit said...

Omarosa recorded Trump saying to her, "I can't stan Pakistanis. They look like Indians, but smell like farts. Build the WALL! No sandniggers, goddammit, my house nigga!

MadisonMan said...

My sources tell me this story is a complete fabrication.

MadisonMan said...

I remember when Dan Rather started saying "Cobble" rather than ka-BULL on the News? I always wondered why he didn't also say Pa-REE.

Amadeus 48 said...

This “news” article just hit peak stupid. Don’t waste my time with this nonsense.

Mike Sylwester said...

Song lyrics by Mike Oldfield

-----

Landfall

Now what do they do if I just sailed away?
Who the hell really compelled me to leave today?
Runnin' low on stories is what made it a ball,
What would they do if made no landfall?

I lived half my life in an eight-by-five room,
Just crusing to the sound of the big diesel boom,
It's not close quarters that would make me snap;
It's just dealing with the daily unadulterated crap.

Sail away for a month at a time,
Sail away I've got to recharge mind

[.....]

What would they do if I made no landfall?
Oh what would they do if I flew to Nepal?
What would I do if I met Lucille Ball?

Trying to make a little sense of it all.

-----

Sung by Jimmy Buffett

Comanche Voter said...

Blogworthy? Maybe, maybe not. But our hostess continually shows that she's got a good nose for detecting codswallop. And this piece is codswallop. Love that word--so much more polite than bull dust.

Known Unknown said...

Should Presidents be detail-oriented?

Known Unknown said...

"Schlump"

You can do better.

JML said...

To this day, I tend to say "Tiger-ass-canyon" as opposed to Tijeras Canyon when using it on I-40. Why? Because that is what my Dad always called it when he went through. He also said "tree' instead of "three" and could speak French and Spanish with what I assume was the same accent. He had a third grade education and got his GED when he was in the AF, and there wasn't a thing he couldn't do or make.

He would have loved trump.

Known Unknown said...

Literally. Seriously.

Pick one, journos.

n.n said...

First, there was Clinton's Water Closet, and the leaks haven't stopped. Deep Plunger will be working overtime.

Trumpit said...

"He had a third grade education and got his GED when he was in the AF, and there wasn't a thing he couldn't do or make.

He would have loved trump."

Even people with a 3rd grade education can spot a pompous ass when they see one. I think he would have been disgusted with Schlump.

RK said...

Our popular media: "This one time, at band camp, ..."

Bunkypotatohead said...

Of course when it's 11pm in DC, it's 11pm all the world over.
Not 6 to 12 hours ahead or behind.
Idiots.

Jim at said...

Yeah, but did he say it in Austrian?

hstad said...

This is news??? I guess after President Obama's "corpsman" snafu I can understand this, maybe? I believe Obama's snafu was not done as Trump, jokingly, it was just done by an ignorant human being, who as head of the military, should've known better.

hstad said...

Geez, AA at least take your dunce cap off with this comment? "AND: I can't believe that Trump's impulse to call somebody at 11:00pm at night is going to be directed at any of the 80 and over world leaders..."

Your example, of calling the Saudi King is so amateurish? You do know that if Trump calls at 11pm at night (assuming he's in DC) that their is an 7 hour time difference between DC and Saudi Arabia? The other example the time difference is even more acute! If you are going to criticize Trump at least get you facts straight.

n.n said...

Two anonymous sources. Progress. So, are they working on an angle that "nipple" and "button" are gendered attributes and could be construed as sexist? Perhaps linked to the Omarosa story through a third anonymous source... and he's out!

roesch/voltaire said...

Michael K you do remember that Osama bin Laden and his followers,I believe they are called Al Qaeda, were in Afghanistan and they speak Arabic. But then Obama knew his geography, and languages a bit better than our Tweeter in Chief who don't know the difference between Great Britain and England.

Drago said...

r/v: "But then Obama knew his geography, and languages a bit better than our Tweeter in Chief who don't know the difference between Great Britain and England."

LOL

"speak Austrian"

History Began This Morning

Drago said...

hstad: "I believe Obama's snafu was not done as Trump, jokingly,.."

Indeed.

Obama said it twice.

And obama was not joking about speaking Austrian in Austria.

He was deadly serious...and deadly stupid.

But then, who cares what languages they speak in any particular place when your only concern is making sure cash flows to Iran so they can complete their nuke development program and fund terrorists.

Obama even pardoned unrepentant terrorists too, just because! And who cares what language they spoke? (spoiler: obama pardoned the murderous unrepentant Puerto Rican terrorists because he thought it would help Hillary in Florida)

JaimeRoberto said...

Were the two sources with knowledge of the meeting in the room, or were they more like sources familiar with his thinking?

Rosalyn C. said...

I remind myself that many of the journalists these days are guided by the rule that if they can imagine something that makes it real. Because their cause is just, lying is completely justified. It's the least they can do.

chickelit said...

Just make shit up and attribute it to anonymous sources.

chickelit said...

Who are the worst offenders in journalism today? Who did to journalism what Pete Strzok did to the FBI?

Names, please.

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Tina Trent said...

I am willing to believe Trump calls up world leaders in the middle of the night. Why not? At least he isn't gorked on booze or pills, like so many people in power and in the media.

Remmeber the Haldeman Diaries? The amphetamine shots have flowed at the White House since Kennedy. The Kennedys were so high they screwed up important state dinners and meetings. Johnson made an agent run on foot behind his car to refill his whisky glass as he drove around his ranch. Nixon popped so much speed in his first few weeks that he decided everyone should forgo sleep except for short naps by the White House pool. Everyone except Kissinger. They were all terrified of Kissinger.

Reagan and Bush senior and Ford could hold their booze like any Republican Party leader. Clinton and Bush Junior weren't drinkers, for different reasons. Carter's ego was as disordering as any substance abuse problem, though otherwise he was sober.

The media popped so much ambien during the Obama years that they don't even remember who slept with whom on Air Force One, let alone what was said by anyone. Obama, interestingly, deeply regrets his youthful substance abuse, though he cynically knew better than to criticize pot use lest he alienate his base. That is deeply troubling if one considers his potential influence over fragile communities. It also shows how upside-down radical non-judgementalism has become.

Trump doesn't drink. Only sober guy at Studio 54. Brother died of it.

Jaq said...

But then Obama knew his geography, and languages a bit better than our Tweeter in Chief who don't know the difference between Great Britain and England.

Seriously? "Intercontinental Railroad"? "Austrian"?