Abe's facial expression is ?? pic.twitter.com/etYaiNH6vp
— Brenna Williams (@brennawilliams) February 10, 2017
NPR:
At a joint news conference Friday, President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought to shed any perceptions of mistrust between two countries that have been longtime allies. In no uncertain terms, both leaders upheld their friendly relations — both diplomatic and personal — as an alliance with a bright future…
Nobody show him that gif, ‘kay?
I’m actually curious to see how this plays out, because Prime Minister Abe has a bit of a reputation himself as a rightwing dick not the most diplomatic individual.
Elsewhere, in the ‘small but significant victories’ category, via NYMag, “Trump Nixes Plan to Appoint a War Criminal to the State Department“:
Until Friday, Elliott Abrams was expected to be named the Trump administration’s deputy secretary of State — a powerful position, particularly in a department headed by a former oil executive with no diplomatic experience.
Abrams’s apparent selection was not treated as a scandal. But in a less degenerate republic, it would have been: The last time Abrams worked at the State Department, he helped the Reagan White House covertly sell weapons to Iran — in defiance of an embargo — so as to fund reactionary rebels in Nicaragua, in defiance of a federal law that Congress had passed 411 to 0…
Rex Tillerson and Jared Kushner both lobbied the president on Abrams’s behalf. And, after a meeting with the war criminal, Trump was prepared to make the neoconservative his number-two diplomat.
And then, Trump came upon a column Abrams had written in May 2016, titled “When You Can’t Stand Your Candidate.”…
Now, Trump has personally vetoed Abrams appointment, according to sources who spoke with CNN…
Late Night Open Thread: Well, <em>That</em> Wasn’t Pleasant…Post + Comments (142)