Donald Trump lost in translation after 'failing to use earpiece' for Japanese premier's news conference

The president apparently laughed after taking cues from his aides

When Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson were famously lost in translation, the setting for the 2003 movie was a Japanese hotel.

When the Japanese Prime Minster visited the White House, it was the turn of Donald Trump to have language problems, after he apparently failed to use his translation earpiece to listen to the visiting premier’s remarks.

Mr Trump has spoken warmly of his regard for Shinzo Abe, and the Japanese prime minister visited the New York tycoon before his inauguration - one of the very first foreign leaders to do so.

Yet while Mr Trump appeared to laugh and joke at Mr Abe’s remarks during their joint news conference at the White House, reports suggested the president was winging things, and taking cues from others in the room.

“He would not have been able to understand what the prime minister was saying,” reported CNN’s senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

“He did not have his earpiece in, and neither did the vice president and others. It was only doing the questions that he put it in.”

He added: “He was laughing at the jokes about playing golf by following the cues of his aides.”