In May 2019 Maroš Šefčovič was travelling with Donald Trump and his entourage to a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. The then European Commission vice-president in charge of energy had flown with Trump onboard Air Force One, calling his wife as the privilege of a first-time flyer on the presidential plane. Once at the facility, Trump gave a typically rambling speech, in which he name-checked Šefčovič from the stage, pointing into the crowd like a gameshow host: “Maroš, thank you very much. Thank you.”
“Of course,” recalled someone familiar with the day, “when Trump pronounced his name it was a bit of a disaster”. But for a top-ranking official of a multilateral organisation, this warm welcome was probably as good as it gets when it comes to the US president.
