Japan PM mocked as ‘Trump sycophant’ after giggling at Biden’s autopen portrait

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is facing accusations of diplomatic sycophancy after White House footage showed her giggling at a portrait of an autopen – placed by US President Donald Trump in the spot reserved for his predecessor Joe Biden – during summit talks last week. The clip, posted on the official White House website, shows Takaichi pointing at the framed picture, then laughing and covering her mouth. It was filmed on the “Presidential Walk of Fame”, a gallery unveiled by Trump last year in the West Wing where portraits of former US presidents are displayed. Trump, who claims his predecessor’s staff routinely used the mechanical signing device to execute documents in his name, replaced Biden’s image with a picture of the autopen itself and has argued that anything signed with it should be invalidated. Takaichi’s embarrassment was compounded further when the White House published additional images of her arriving at an official dinner for senior Japanese and American officials with her fists raised, handbag over one arm, apparently shouting with delight. Her office later explained she had been caught off guard by a band playing “Rusty Nail”, a song by the Japanese rock group X Japan she has publicly named as a favourite. The explanation did little to quiet her critics. ‘Like a dog watching its master’ Online reaction in Japan was largely withering. “She comes across as a Trump sycophant,” read one comment on BuzzFeed Japan. “I understand she’s having a hard time dealing with Trump, but she’s certainly attracting global attention. I wish she had refrained from such public behaviour, as it could easily be interpreted as representing the consensus of the Japanese people.” Others focused on the political fallout of laughing at Biden’s symbolic absence, saying it “could easily be interpreted as an insult to the former Democratic president, whose party might win a majority in the next midterm elections”. That was far from the sharpest rebuke, however. “Takaichi’s words and actions at the summit made me feel ashamed as a Japanese person,” read one especially unsparing comment. “She tried to read Mr Trump’s mood like a dog watching its master … There’s a limit to how much you can flatter. Shouldn’t we have a leader who is a little more refined in their demeanour?” If this footage gets shown more widely, it will not look so good for her Hiromi Murakami, political-science professor Opposition politicians have also accused her of being “over-flattering” to Trump, according to Hiromi Murakami, a political-science professor at Temple University’s Tokyo branch. Takaichi has pushed back, arguing she returned home with genuine diplomatic wins. “She came back to Washington to strong acclaim for her diplomacy, for not giving in to pressure to send troops to the Middle East, for example,” Murakami said. “But if this footage gets shown more widely, it will not look so good for her. And she will have to hope that the next Democratic administration will overlook it.” Japan’s current prime minister is “trying desperately” to follow in the footsteps of her political mentor Shinzo Abe, according to Michael Cucek, a professor of Asian studies also at Temple University. Abe cultivated a strong working relationship with Trump through flattery and expensive gifts during the US president’s first term and was widely applauded at home for the working relationship it produced. “Takaichi’s obsequiousness is basically derived from her conviction that her interactions with Trump need to be guided by the dead hand of Abe,” Cucek said. “She believes that he would have guffawed at the autopen picture, so that’s what she did.” The strategy may be less transferable than she hopes, however. Cucek suggested that Trump was treating Takaichi differently from how he treated Abe – more like a “wind-up doll” than a fellow world leader. Opposition ammunition Whether Takaichi’s flattery will cost her politically remains to be seen. Analysts say much will depend on what Japan’s mainstream media – and especially its television networks – choose to do with the footage. Cucek said that Japanese broadcasters might be inclined to pull their punches, but the prime minister’s political opponents were less likely to forgive and forget. He expects Tomoko Tomura, head of the Japanese Communist Party, to “eviscerate” Takaichi in the Diet at the earliest opportunity. Cucek reserved particular contempt for the Trump White House’s decision to publish material that so clearly presented the visiting leader of an allied nation in a less-than-flattering light. “The White House has become a propaganda factory,” he said. “It’s a degraded institution that focuses on producing propaganda for the Maga movement. And at a time when this administration is falling out with other governments around the world, they are using this to show that Japan is on side.”

Japan PM mocked as ‘Trump sycophant’ after giggling at Biden’s autopen portrait

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}White House imagery showing Sanae Takaichi cheering for a rock song and laughing at a jibe at Joe Biden left some in Japan feeling ‘ashamed’

White House imagery showing Sanae Takaichi cheering for a rock song and laughing at a jibe at Joe Biden left some in Japan feeling ‘ashamed’