As he often does with the simplest of gestures or phrases, Donald Trump on Monday prompted fears over his diplomacy, this time by feeding fishes with the graceless ease that only he appears to be capable of.
The presidential-level ineptitude was seemingly apparent in a multitude of meme’s showing Trump pouring the lion’s share of his allocated fish food into a koi pond in a single swoop, rather than delicately spooning it into the pond, like his host, Japan leader Shinzo Abe did.
Naturally, the media seized upon’s Trump apparent clumsiness, quickly harvesting the necessary online mockery to provide the wider-social and political context of the fish food gaffe, while also highlighting the potential fatal consequences for those being fed.
Even the AFP news agency, which shot the pool footage, pointed out that his fish-feeding technique had caused a frenzy of “social media” outrage.
Problem is, the criticism of Trump isn’t entirely fair.
And this wasn’t lost on a few of his fans who responded to media reports with one of the president’s favourite catchphrases - “fake news”.
While most of the video clips of the feeding scene were short clips and zoomed in to capture Trump’s golden goof, a longer clip of proceedings shows that after both leaders spooned food into the pond it was Abe who emptied his box, in one final flourish, before Trump followed suit several seconds later.
