Whenever I see pictures of Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe together I hear the theme music from the Neil Simon comedy The Odd Couple. For Trump and Abe are indeed the Felix and Oscar of global politics, a gently comic double act with starkly different but oddly complimentary personalities and all the appearance of a twilight years bromance.
The pair met soon after Trump’s inauguration when Abe rushed stateside to be the first foreign leader to pay his respects to the new president. Since then the relationship has blossomed, and they’ve met frequently, and conversed on some 40 separate occasions.
There have been some choice comic moments along the way. There was the Seinfeldian episode in July 2017 when Abe’s wife Akie apparently pretended she couldn’t speak English to avoid talking to the President, when seated beside him at a G20 banquet. Then there was Abe falling into a bunker during a round of golf on Trump’s last visit in 2018, and on the current tour both men struggled to lift enormous sumo trophies
Japan's PM Shinzo Abe falls into bunker during round of golf with @POTUS
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