In recent coverage from the BBC, the news organization comments on ongoing talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and “unlikely spokesman for Europe,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb. Stubb, a 1993 Furman University political science alumnus, is dubbed by many media outlets as a “Trump Whisperer” and confidant. Their relationship began in March this year at a Mar-a-Lago golf tournament. Stubb, who originally came to Furman on a golf scholarship, and Trump routinely discuss the war in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, European sentiment, and lately, a deal to buy 11 Finnish icebreaker ships, four of them to be built in the U.S.
Furman’s Brent Nelsen, the Jane Fishburne Hipp Professor of Politics and International Affairs and friend of Stubb’s, talks about the importance of the leaders’ first meeting on the golf course. “Trump is always impressed with superior talent,” Nelsen tells the BBC. “Somebody who has some gift that really makes him stand out.”