Donald Trump has continued to distract the world from major diplomatic developments and national catastrophes with his unintentionally slapstick-style of politics.
Having successfully navigated questions on Hurricane Harvey and the recent pardon of Joe Arpaio during a joint press conference on Monday with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, the US President came unstuck when he let questioning continue into overtime.
Joint press conferences involving the US President generally see foreign leaders field two questions from American journalists and two from reporters from the home country of the president’s counterpart, according to the Washington Post.
However, on Monday Trump was keen to keep the questions coming, that was until he got confused about who was asking them.
“I know there might be a couple of more questions,” Trump said to Niinisto. “Do you want to take one more? Would you want to take one more? Go ahead. Pick.”
Niinisto then gestured to a third Finnish journalist, before Trump interjected, asking, “Again?”, having mistaken the reporter for another female journalist who had earlier quizzed him.
“You’re gonna give her — the same one?”
“No, she is not the same lady,” Niinistö replied. “They are sitting side by side.”
The reporter then attempted to diffuse the confusion, explaining: “We have a lot of blonde women in Finland.”
The gaffe isn’t the first time Trump has pushed politics out of the picture to embarrass himself.
In June he called Irish journalist Caitriona Perry over to his desk while on a call to Ireland’s newly elected prime minister, Leo Varadkar.
“We have a lot of your Irish press watching us right now,” Trump was overheard saying.
“We have all of this Irish, beautiful Irish press. Where are you from? Come here, come here...”
Perry approached before quickly retreating again as Trump continued: “She has a nice smile on her face so I bet she treats you well.”
Perry described the moment as “bizarre”, and it left many deeply uncomfortable.