Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni grew visibly frustrated while waiting for US President Joe Biden to show up for a high-stakes Nato summit on Thursday.
A video, now viral, shows Meloni rolling her eyes and checking an imaginary watch flanked by world leaders as they awaited Biden’s arrival.
In the brief clip, Meloni looks up at the ceiling and crosses her eyes dramatically before waving her wrist, in a gesture that screams “look at the time!” Finnish President Alexander Stubb, standing beside her, checks his phone to check the time. She again rolls her eyes, a disgruntled look on her face, before noticing the cameras focused on her and awkwardly smiling.
After Biden walked in, well past the scheduled start time, he seemed to have an awkward moment with Meloni while greeting her. She appeared uncomfortable when the 81-year-old tried to give her a peck on the cheek, leaning away from him.
Biden’s missteps didn’t stop there. He had a series of verbal slip-ups while addressing Nato’s three-day 75th anniversary summit in Washington, mistakenly referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” and mixing up the name of Vice President Kamala Harris and his rival Donald Trump.
While hailing Zelenskyy’s courage in leading Ukraine at a time of war, Biden turned to him and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin.” He quickly corrected himself and Zelenskyy, a former comedian, promptly made light of the gaffe, saying, “I am better than Putin.”
Later, at a closely watched press conference, he appeared to lose his train of thought and spectacularly fumbled his second-in-command’s name. “Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if I think she’s not qualified to be president,” he said.
Verbal gaffes are not unusual for Biden, who is the oldest sitting US President. However, the lapses quickly revived memories of his disastrous debate against Trump last month. They came at a crucial time when he is under intense scrutiny amid mounting concerns that he is too old to run for re-election.