AWKWARD

Trump Makes Wild Joke About Foreign Journalist’s Accent

The president had a strange exchange with an Indian journalist in the Oval Office.

President Donald Trump made a wild joke about a foreign journalist’s accent to his face.

The president, who turns 80 on June 14, was fielding questions in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon when an Indian journalist took the floor. Not long after the president appeared to take yet another mid-day nap, the reporter asked about Trump’s relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but that did not hold his attention for long.

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“Are you from India, by any chance? Huh? I thought you were from Germany?” he said with a smirk.

“I’m only kidding,” the president added after the journalist confirmed that he was indeed from India. But he wasn’t done.

Refusing to leave the awkward topic alone and answer the journalist’s question fully, he remarked, “You’re Central Casting. That’s a good thing.”

This is a term the president has trotted out regularly, and it simply means that someone fits the typical image associated with a role. So, in this case, the president was saying the journalist looked like either a typical Indian man or a typical Indian reporter.

In May, Trump invoked the phrase while discussing Chinese President Xi Jinping during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. Suggesting Xi looked exactly as audiences would expect a Chinese leader to look on screen, Trump said: “If you went to Hollywood and looked for a leader of China to play a role in a movie, he’s Central Casting.” He added that Xi had the appearance and presence people would associate with the role.

Trump has frequently used the expression throughout his political career to describe military officers, police officials, and politicians whose looks or demeanor he believes project authority or play well on television.

The phrase itself predates Trump. American politicians have long used “straight out of Central Casting” as shorthand for someone who perfectly fits a particular role or stereotype. The saying derives from the real-life Central Casting agency, which has supplied film and television productions with background actors and extras since opening in December 1925.

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Leigh KimminsReporter

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