(Bloomberg) -- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto's photo session with Donald Trump became a meme -- the Nordic leader brushing away the U.S. president's attempt to pat him on the left knee.
That became an apt image to the Finnish media, which noted that their leader became a prop in the Trump show. Even former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt weighed in.
Niinisto's “role was to play the admiring and grateful leader of a small country,” the newspaper Aamulehti's editor Matti Posio observed.
“It was obvious that Niinisto was going to be a bystander” given Trump was in the middle of the Ukraine scandal, which blew up into an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives, state-broadcaster YLE said.
Finland's biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat dryly observed that the atmosphere was “charged” amid Trump's tirades against Democrats, the Biden family, the impeachment inquiry, and the media, leaving Niinisto listening silently.
Finnish media also noted the abrupt end to the press conference, with Trump storming out of the room instead of shaking hands and posing for final photos with Niinisto, as is customary.
“It was very pleasant,” Niinisto later told Finnish media.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kati Pohjanpalo in Helsinki at kpohjanpalo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net, James Hertling
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