This is a comedic situation that the writers of VEEP couldn’t even dream up…
In an interview with a number of reporters from The New York Times, Trump spoke about a dinner that took place during the G20 Summit in Hamburg, during which he was sat next to First Lady of Japan, Akie Abe:
TRUMP (Contd.): So, I was seated next to the wife of Prime Minister Abe [Shinzo Abe of Japan], who I think is a terrific guy, and she’s a terrific woman, but doesn’t speak English.
REPORTER: Like, nothing, right? Like zero?
TRUMP: Like, not “hello.”
REPORTER: That must make for an awkward seating.
TRUMP: Well, it’s hard, because you know, you’re sitting there for——
REPORTER: Hours.
TRUMP: So the dinner was probably an hour and 45 minutes.
The problem here is that Akie Abe does, in fact, speak English. Any number of interviews online, or even a cursory YouTube search, can prove it. And not just phonetically passable English, as this FIFTEEN MINUTE LONG keynote speech can testify to:
Clip via Black Tie Magazine
So now all we have is questions, but it all basically boils down to one of two options here:
(1) Trump was misinformed of the First Lady’s command of the English language, so didn’t attempt to make conversation with her during the dinner, or the infinitely better (2) Akie Abe simply didn’t want to speak to Trump, so purposefully avoided using English in his company, and didn’t correct his opinion on her grasp of the language.
Either way, whatever the reason was – maybe something to do with Trump effectively turning the G20 summit into the G19 by pulling America out of the majority of the climate change agreements – the whole situation is hilarious and brilliant and now we all fell in love with the First Lady of Japan a little bit.
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