Trump splits Twitter with Covfefe, decapitated head, Merkel; statesman Modi charms

Trump is back home and back to banging out garbled midnight tweets on negative press ‘covfefe’ ( coverage?) and snapping at a comedian while India’s prime minister Modi who likely to meet Trump soon is charming Europe at a time when America’s pivot to Asia wanes under the new US administration. From Firstpost, New York, we bring you all that’s driving the day in Washington D.C and across the pond.

What is #covfefe? A late-night tweet by President Trump baffles the internet https://t.co/tDuwr8FMUn pic.twitter.com/I35DZe1GIY

— CNN (@CNN) May 31, 2017

Trump snarls, Modi charms The Modi-Trump summit is likely last week of June although not official yet. When the two leaders meet, comparisons of their social media following will be du jour but the latest round of exchanges with Europe by both India and the US prove that Modi and Trump’s foreign engagement styles are wildly divergent. The timing of Trump’s rant against Germany and India’s pivot to Germany/ Europe both grabbed world headlines in the same 12 hour span.

‘Covfefe’, an instant worldwide joke Trump returned to Washington after a nine-day tour of the Middle East and Europe putting traditional U.S. allies even more on the edge and snapped back to his beloved pastime Twitter where he took on Germany - in all CAPS.

“We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change”, Trump posted.

Soon after came the now famous “covfefe” tweet followed by Trump scolding comedian Kathy Griffin or appearing in a video in which she holds a severed and fake-blood-covered prop version of the president’s head.

Just past midnight Wednesday, President Trump tweeted a curious sentence which was deleted from his personal account some six hours later.

“Despite the constant negative press covfefe,” the abrupt tweet read, instantly becoming a worldwide joke.

Within six hours, this one got 127,000 retweets and 162,000 likes — making it one of Trump’s most popular tweets in months. It was deleted before 6 a.m. Wednesday but Trump continued to egg on his audience , asking them to divine what a typo could possibly have been.

Trump’s #covfefe tweet leaves Internet guessing https://t.co/zcAo6wItNU pic.twitter.com/6I2YMGjItv

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) May 31, 2017

Merkel dusts off Trump, pivots to India Germany, meanwhile, is off Twitter and getting on with “taking fate into our own hands”, forging non-US partnerships with renewed energy in a disrupted world order.

“Through Chancellor Merkel, we will be able to work with the European Union. It’s very easy for us,” Modi said during his whirlwind tour of 6 day, 4 country tour.

On a red-eye to Russia The way the dots connect, Modi will likely be meeting Putin around the same time that Trump’s bete noire Megyn Kelly will be going down to the wire in her bid to swing a Putin interview. The former Fox News anchor who had a much publicized run in with Trump is in Russia to participate in an onstage question-and-answer session with Putin Friday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. She also is pushing for an offstage interview that would be featured on the first episode of NBC’s “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly.”

By the time Modi gets to the U.S, the White House will likely have found new office space for its freshly thought up “war room” with a cool job description - managing fallout from the scandals swirling around the Trump administration.

By all accounts, if Modi meets Trump before Fall 2017, he will be meeting a US President whose troubles are spiralling at home while he learns how despite winning the White House, legislative gridlock can stymie almost every file he wants to push.

U.S Congressmen are looking forward to the looming August recess and Trump’s window for scoring early wins is fast vanishing. From July 31 to September 4, both houses of Congress will be shut for business , so senators get down time to catch up on summer reading, escape the heat and so on.

Almost exactly a year ago, Modi joked during his address to a joint session of Congress about how bipartisan cooperation is so warm and cozy. Whenever Modi lands in the U.S, he would have notched up many more legislative wins in a far more populous country than America has managed in its new and wobbly administraion.