By Shruti Sunderraman
That Trump is a walking disaster when it comes to women is known. After his shameful objectification of French first lady Brigette Macron, he found himself seated next to Akie Abe, the Japanese first lady at the G20 Summit dinner. Maybe Madame Abe didn’t want to be a part of Trump’s history with first ladies, maybe she wanted to avoid engaging in conversation with him or just plain thinks he does not deserve her time (you go, lady), she pretended to not know to speak English throughout the dinner.
Trump was quoted saying, “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 — like not ‘hello’.”
Hello, the joke’s on you, Trump. Madame Akie Abe not only speaks English but has also given complete speeches in English. Here’s a video of her giving the Keynote address at a R3ADY Asia-Pacific summit:
We’re all with Madame Abe for this clever tactic and so is Twitter.
https://twitter.com/samthielman/status/887987198146097152
https://twitter.com/CatieHogan/status/888018345546715137
https://twitter.com/ishaantharoor/status/888074214464507904
While it might certainly be an unusual tactic to duck the Trump misogyny train, but how effective will this be in overall context? Is avoiding dialogue going to solve the problem?
But we can’t blame her to wanting to enjoy a dinner without having to deal with Trump. I certainly wish we had half her sass.