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Japan's first lady pretends not to speak English rather than chat with Donald Trump

'I was seated next to the wife of Prime Minister Abe ... she’s a terrific woman, but doesn’t speak English,' Trump said. But she does

Joseph Brean, July 20, 2017, 6:30 PM EDT, http://nationalpost.com/news/w...3e-bd0a-c6cd65709329

Akie Abe, wife of Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, leaves the boat "Diplomat" on the river Elbe as she takes part in the G20 Summit Spouse Program on July 7, 2017 in Hamburg, Germany. Sarbach/Pool/Getty Images

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Japan's first lady pretends not to speak English rather than chat with Donald Trump

'I was seated next to the wife of Prime Minister Abe ... she’s a terrific woman, but doesn’t speak English,' Trump said. But she does

Joseph Brean, July 20, 2017, 6:30 PM EDT, http://nationalpost.com/news/w...3e-bd0a-c6cd65709329

Akie Abe, first lady of Japan and wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has spoken English many times in public, fluently, with only the slightest accent.

She chatted, for example, about a shared admiration for star baseball pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka (then of the Boston Red Sox), at the White House with President George W. Bush and his wife Laura in 2007. She has chatted with Laureen Harper, had cocktails with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, spoken to business leaders in New York, and to a Virginia elementary school audience with Michelle Obama

She has even met Donald and Melania Trump a couple of times, earlier this year at Andrews Air Force Base, followed by a weekend at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where the two men played golf.

Akie Abe, right, wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, sits next to Donald Trump for dinner at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., in February. Al Drago/The New York Times

And yet, last week at the G20 summit in Germany, when the opera performance ended, Trump says she was seated next to him for dinner and simply sat in silence, rather than endure the presidential chit chat.

She appears to have pretended not to speak English, pulling off one of the greatest tricks in the history of dinner diplomacy.

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If so, Abe had a plausible reason, as Trump has a long record of disrespectful behaviour toward women, most recently an aggressive handshake and lewd comment about the body of Brigitte Macron, the first lady of France.

https://youtu.be/Uhn4EFGiZhA

Evidence for this shockingly bold but simple gambit comes from the president himself, in an interview with The New York Times.

“So, I was seated next to the wife of Prime Minister Abe, who I think is a terrific guy, and she’s a terrific woman, but doesn’t speak English,” Trump told reporter Maggie Haberman.

“Like, nothing, right? Like zero?” Haberman asked.

“Like, not ‘hello,’” said Trump.

Haberman said that must have been awkward, and Trump agreed, noting the dinner went well over an hour and a half.

Attending a G20 banquet in Hamburg on July 7, 2017, are Juliana Awada, left, the first lady of Argentina; President Donald Trump, centre; and Akie Abe, the first lady of Japan. TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images

He did have a Japanese interpreter, but indicated he did not make much use of the service, eating an entire banquet without saying a word to the woman seated beside him.

“But I enjoyed the evening with her, and she’s really a lovely woman, and I enjoyed — the whole thing was good,” he said.

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It was good until 10 days later when the White House revealed that Trump actually left his seat to speak privately to Vladimir Putin, who was seated next to Melania Trump. Trump said the pair spoke for about 15 minutes. Other accounts say it was closer to an hour. Putin used his own interpreter and there is no U.S. record of what was said other than the U.S. president’s assertion that they discussed Americans’ adoption of Russian children.

U.S. President Donald Trump, bottom left, talks to delegates from Saudi Arabia as his wife Melania talks to Russian President Vladimir Putin with the help of a Russian translator, top right at a G20 banquet in Hamburg on July 7, 2017. Centre left is his empty seat between Juliana Awada, the first lady of Argentina and Akie Abe, the first lady of Japan. Kay Nietfeld/Pool Photo via AP

Abe definitely speaks English, as her many public appearances in the West have demonstrated. As the youngest Japanese first lady since the Second World War, she has become a popular counterpart to her older, hawkish husband, with whom she frequently disagrees in public, such as over nuclear power, which she opposes.

They were married in 1987 when she was 25, and working for a large advertising firm, and he was 32. Earlier, she had written a master’s thesis on education in Burma. They have no children.

In this July 7, 2017 photo Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Melania Trump, wife of US-President Donald Trump, talk with a translator between them as they have dinner during the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Kay Nietfeld/pool photo via AP
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YUhknow what let me go put my Pork Chops and Baby Back Ribs on the friggin Grill. peace, I am out!!!

 

Is time for Dharmat Karo Bhia Dharmat Karo. Dem neighbors gun wake up now if they sleeping.

Nehru

Japan's first lady pretends not to speak English rather than chat with Donald Trump

Joseph Brean, July 20, 2017, 6:30 PM EDT, http://nationalpost.com/news/w...3e-bd0a-c6cd65709329

It was good until 10 days later when the White House revealed that Trump actually left his seat to speak privately to Vladimir Putin, who was seated next to Melania Trump. Trump said the pair spoke for about 15 minutes. Other accounts say it was closer to an hour. Putin used his own interpreter and there is no U.S. record of what was said other than the U.S. president’s assertion that they discussed Americans’ adoption of Russian children.

Identical to the statement that the world is flat.

FM

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