'He was at times dangerously uninformed,' the book quotes a former senior White House adviser as saying. 'Trump had heard the phrase 'Pearl Harbor' and appeared to understand that he was visiting the scene of a historic battle, but he did not seem to know much else,' the book said. 'Hey, John, what's this all about? What's this a tour of?' Trump is quoted as asking his then-chief of staff John Kelly. The book also recounts a tour by Trump of a memorial for the USS Arizona, a US warship that was sunk by Japanese planes in the 7 December 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbour. 'Modi's expression gradually shifted, from shock and concern to resignation,' it said.Īfter the meeting, 'the Indians took a step back' in their diplomatic relations with the United States, a Trump aide told the authors. India and China share a border and the two countries went to war in 1962 over a disputed Himalayan section of the frontier.įollowing Trump's border comment and seeming dismissal of the threat China poses to India, 'Modi's eyes bulged out in surprise,' according to the book, excerpts of which were published in the Post on Wednesday.

'It's not like you've got China on your border,' the authors quoted Trump as telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting between the two leaders.

The book, A Very Stable Genius, by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, highlights episodes of volatile behaviour by the president along with his ignorance of basic geography and history. WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump's shaky grasp of geography includes not knowing that India shares a border with China, according to a new book by a pair of reporters for The Washington Post.

A stable genius book