Wednesday's roller coaster news conference with President Trump and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto elicited ridicule and some concern in Finland, where many celebrated their leader on Thursday for enduring with dignity what they largely described as a Trump monologue.
Coming from a nation that ranks second on the World Press Freedom Index - compared to the United States, which ranks 48th - stunned Finnish reporters described to their readers back home a "circus" and parallel reality in the White House.
Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet offered a blunt summary of the meeting: "Niinisto's visit was overshadowed by Circus Trump - President Niinisto asked Trump to safeguard US democracy."
"It was a very typical Trump press conference with a foreign leader. Trump talks, and the foreign leader is just a prop, who basically watches and tries to keep a straight face," Jussi Hanhimaki, a Finnish researcher focusing on transatlantic relations, told The Washington Post.
Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/10/03/finns-who-watched-trump-news-conference-describe-parallel-reality-resembling-circus/
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