When world leaders sit down at a summit in Evian, France, you’d expect the conversation to stay locked on geopolitics and nuclear threats. But when Donald Trump’s involved, there’s always room for golf talk—and this time, a pinky promise sealed the deal.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met with Trump over dinner at the G7 summit this week, where they tackled the serious stuff first: peace on the Korean Peninsula and the decades-long tension with North Korea. Lee posted on X that they made significant progress on those fronts. But when the appetizers cleared and the conversation turned casual, Trump steered things toward his favorite subject. He mentioned golf and said he’d play a round with the South Korean delegation. Lee’s wife sealed the pledge with a pinky promise—a delightfully informal gesture at a summit where handshakes and formal protocols usually dominate.
The lightness didn’t end there. At lunch the following day, Trump presented Lee with one of his signature black markers—a gift that felt perfectly on-brand for a man who owns over a dozen golf courses across the United States, Scotland, and Ireland. The two leaders posed for photos, both smiling, the kind of moment that gets shared across diplomatic channels as proof that personal rapport matters, even when nuclear-armed nations are at the table.
As they parted ways, Trump circled back to the golf invitation, bringing it up again. That’s when Lee realized this wasn’t just small talk. He posted that he’d “thought it was just a passing remark, but it seems I should start preparing.” It’s a telling detail in the world of international relations—when a U.S. president mentions something twice, you take it seriously. Golf diplomacy might sound trivial, but it’s actually how relationships get built. Eighteen holes together gives leaders time to talk off the record, to find common ground beyond the formal agenda, to remind each other they’re human beings with shared interests, not just adversaries at a negotiating table.
Whether the round ever happens remains to be seen. But the pinky promise is out there now, and in the age of geopolitical tension, sometimes a commitment to play golf together is its own form of diplomatic progress.
