Ice breakers and golf Forji Trump and unlikely the friendship of the Finnish leader

No small talk was required to break the ice between these two leaders who became unlikely friends.

Instead, the real icebreakers – 9,000 -Tonian hill ships – made a deal between Donald Trump and Finland President Alexander Steb, strengthening their growing business and personal relations.

Trump was smiling at his meeting at the Oval Office on Thursday, slightly bent down and nodded with the man who became many, unlikely a spokesman for Europe.

Alexander Stub of Finland is a leader who, despite the relatively small size of his country, has the ear of the US president more than most.

“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Trump noted as they sat, facing each other, under a picture of young George Washington.

For the next hour, the two men discussed a wide range of problems – but mostly a deal to buy 11 ships per icebreaker.

These are difficult to build a Finnish maritime specialty that the country uses to break through ports frozen in raw Scandinavian winters and which Trump has long had eyes.

Four of them will be built in the United States using Finnish know -how, which has promised “means investment, means jobs and means hope” – which Thanks for Trump said it was necessary to take the proximity of Finland to Russia and what he called the “ridiculous” war in Ukraine.

More than any aspect of bilateral relations between the US and Finland, Ukraine the war has thrown the connection between Step and Trump into international titles.

Among many observers of the war, Stem is regarded as one of the leaders of NATO, perhaps best to swing Trump to Europe’s position towards Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin.

“I see Finland’s enormous influence in Washington as a direct result of the close personal relationships between Stub and Trump,” said Jason Moier, an expert in transatlantic relations in the Atlantic Council of Washington.

“The pragmatism of Finland and the stem, the knowledge of Russia, the consistent support for Ukrainian, and the fact that it has a specialized technological know-how in its ecosystem of the icebreaker, provides Finland with a greater than expected and certainly well-deserved role in transatlantic relations.” He added.

At first glance, the two men couldn’t look different.

While Trump officially joined politics at the end of his life after a long real estate career, his younger Finnish counterpart began his own career through more academic pursuits.

He was a researcher at the Finland Representative Service in the European Union before passing through various positions until he became a MEP in 2004, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister and – last year – president of his country.

The role of a stem like what some media have identified as a “whisper of Trump” did not go unnoticed in other European capitals.

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski in July thanked him that he “was helping to build a connection” with Trump as the war in Ukraine continued to rage.

In the White House the next month, Stem sat next to Zelenski – and directly across the Trump table – at a summit that included leaders of Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the European Commission and the EU.

“Finland is a country of 5.5 million people,” said Moer. “This shows how much he is interested in Trump (in Finland) and drives at home how much influence the Finns have.”

The two men have a warm connection and send text or call often – sometimes a week, according to two sources familiar with the conversations.

According to Stubb, such a call happened on the night before the Oval Office meeting on Thursday.

“The White House had learned that if the phone was in” don’t worry, “if you ring three times, it releases you,” Stubb told reporters.

It was Trump on the line who told him that he wanted new icebreakers.

While these conversations are often aimed at politics, sometimes they are just friendly chats for shared passion – golf.

This is the favorite fun of Trump and Sport, for which Stub once portrayed Finland as a member of his national team.

“Golf really matters,” says Brent Nelsen, a former professor of Stubs at Ferman University in Georgia, to whom the Finnish president studied golf scholarships in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “He’s really, really good golf.”

The importance of the shared interest of Step and Trump was emphasized in March, when Step appeared surprisingly at the Trump Mar-Lago mansion in Florida to play with the US president, South Carolina Senator Senator, and South Africa’s famous Garry Garry Golfer.

Trump was instantly surprised by Finn’s abilities.

At Truth Social, Trump wrote that he was a “very good player” and that the two won a Member of Member together.

“Trump loved this. Alex (Step) said there was a really good circle,” said G -n -Nelson, who remains in close contact with his ex -student and now a friend with whom he wrote a textbook for the EU.

“Trump is always impressed with superb talent. Someone who has some gift that really makes him stand out.”

Over 18 holes in the solar golf course, the two men talked over a wide range of topics ranging from ice breeders to Ukraine. This time together, later, he reminded the two men to feel each other.

“You learn about the person’s personality on the first hole of the golf course,” he told Bloomberg. “You see if they are sharp, if they are impatient, if they are fun, if they are calm. I have to say that I had no uncomfortable moments during this circle.”

During lunch, Trump asked Finn

“You can’t,” he answered, he told Bloomberg.

Within hours, Trump told the NBC that he was “angry” and “very angry” by Putin -his most ranked and most criticized criticism of the Russian leader at that moment of Trump’s second term.

Nelsen said the conversation apparently convinced the president.

“Alex spent seven hours with him in this golf cart,” he said. “It had some influence on what Trump was thinking.”

Trump’s most meeting in the oval office with a stem came only one day after Trump announced an agreement to end the fire between Hamas and Israel.

“No one in history has resolved eight wars in a period of nine months and I stopped eight wars,” Trump said at the meeting.

“I did it because I saved a lot of lives and this is what bothers me so much about Russia-Ukraine.”

Step sat silently as he spoke, and only a few minutes later, reporters were introduced from the room.

But behind the closed doors and away from the cameras, Step said that he and Trump once again discussed the war, and Finn reported messages from Zelenski, although he did not provide any details.

Ukraine’s more detailed chat seems to have to wait.

And there is no golf on this trip.