President Alexander Stubb has said he does not see the round of golf he played last year with Donald Trump as anything “extraordinary,” but spending seven hours with the U.S. president ” is never a bad thing.”
The media has portrayed Stubb as having a special relationship with Trump, something the Finnish president plays down.
In an interview with ERR’s “Pealtnägija” following Estonian President Alar Karis’ state visit to Finland this week, Stubb joked that this reputation was down to “journalistic exaggeration.”
“Sometimes I’ve been able to interpret Trump to Zelenskyy or Zelenskyy to Trump, and then both of them to, you know, European friends. I hope it’s useful,” he told the show. “But for me to make a claim that I whisper into Trump’s ear, do this and he does it? Exaggeration! Not happening.”
Last March, the two presidents played golf during Stubb’s “surprise, unofficial trip” to Florida. Politico Europe reported that the two heads of state discussed Ukraine and icebreaker ships, among other things.
“But I didn’t see the golf round as extraordinary. I just thought it was good for the president of Finland to have that connection and then relay some messages back. For instance, he asked me, can you trust Putin? I said, no, you can’t,” Stubb said.
However, the president did explain how it had come about. The initiator was South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
“I studied at Furman University in South Carolina, and Graham came to visit early in my presidency before the U.S. elections in 2024. And he said — hey, let’s, you know… I play a lot of golf with Trump, and if he becomes president, let’s go and play,” he said.
“And then we were sitting in the Munich Security Conference in 2025, in February, right when Trump had been inaugurated. And Graham just called Trump and Trump answered and said — hey, I’m here with the president of Finland, he played golf for Furman. He was in the Finnish national team. Why don’t we play at Mar-a-Lago? He said, ” Yeah, great! Let’s do it!
“And then sure enough, at the end of March, a few weeks later, we ended up playing a round of golf, which obviously, for the president of Finland to have breakfast, play golf, lunch, spend seven hours with the president of the U.S. is never a bad thing.”
I was honored to play in and win the Trump International Spring Member-Guest Tournament today.
President Trump was awesome! Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who played golf at Furman University, was amazing. The legendary Gary Player was the Rock of Gibraltar. Trey Gowdy… pic.twitter.com/vF5oMDr7zb
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 29, 2025
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