How Donald Trump Turned a Diplomatic Meeting Into an Awkward Spectacle**

No one noticed it at first.
Not the aides standing behind the chairs.
Not the photographers waiting for the ceremonial signing.
Not even Li Jay Mong — until it was too late.

But in the middle of a formal diplomatic meeting, Donald Trump quietly reached across the table and took Li Jay Mong’s signature pen, triggering one of the most awkward moments captured in recent political memory.

What happened next left the room silent, confused, and unsure whether they were witnessing a joke… or something much stranger.

The snatch heard around the room

Li Jay Mong was preparing to sign an official document — a moment months in the making — when Trump suddenly leaned forward, plucked the pen from his hand’s reach, and began twirling it between his fingers.

With a casual grin, Trump said:

“This pen is fantastic — better than any in the White House.”

Li froze.
Smiled.
Then froze again.

It wasn’t the pen itself that mattered — it was his pen, the one he personally used for major agreements, a piece of symbolic craftsmanship representing his office.

He reached out, expecting Trump to hand it back.

Trump didn’t.

He dodged the gesture with the ease of someone accustomed to owning the entire room.

A silence thicker than diplomacy can mask

For several seconds, no one moved.

It wasn’t the kind of silence that happens during solemn state ceremonies.
It was the silence that fills a room when everyone wonders:

“Is this… really happening?”

Trump kept twirling the pen, fully aware of the attention now centered on him.
Then he delivered another line — the one that made Li’s face stiffen completely:

“Maybe I should use this pen to sign the next historic agreement.”

Li Jay Mong forced a smile, the kind politicians train for but hope never to use.
But his eyes told the truth: a blend of disbelief, resignation, and a quiet calculation of how to salvage the moment without igniting a diplomatic flare-up.

Trump puts the pen in his pocket — and keeps it

As aides shifted uncomfortably, Li attempted one more polite reach.

Trump simply slipped the pen into his jacket pocket as if it were a gift that had just been publicly offered.

Everyone in the room waited for Trump to laugh, wink, or make some gesture acknowledging that he was joking.

He didn’t.

Instead, he gestured confidently with the pen case, then took it with him as the meeting concluded — without ever returning it.

Li remained gracious, but observers could see the resignation on his face:
he had just lost his prized pen to a man who had no intention of giving it back.

And yes — it’s not the first time

Ironically, this isn’t the only object Trump has walked away with during a diplomatic moment.

At the recent World Cup ceremony, he held onto the trophy longer than any official anticipated — long enough that staffers nervously exchanged looks. When asked to return it, Trump famously joked:

“It would look perfect in my office.”

The trophy was eventually taken back.
The pen, however, was not.

A moment small in scale but enormous in symbolism

In international diplomacy, small gestures matter.

Pens, documents, handshakes, chairs — these details send signals.

And in this case, the signal was unmistakable:

Trump dominates rooms not by policy, but by presence.
By unpredictability.
By forcing others to adjust to him.

Some see it as swagger.
Some see it as disrespect.
But everyone sees it.

And Li Jay Mong — whose expression now circulates across global media — learned firsthand what happens when personal belongings meet political theatrics.