Don't mention the tweets: PM Bill English's entente cordiale with Trump

Prime Minister Bill English appears to have reached an entente cordiale over US President Donald Trump's use of Twitter: English will lay off Trump's Twitter if Trump does not critique English's Facebook offerings.

After meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, English said he had not raised any concerns about Trump's leadership style or his use of Twitter.

"I don't think it's our position to comment on the way an elected leader of another country conducts his business. We wouldn't expect him to be raising issues about my Facebook."

English's Facebook hits are rather more mundane than Trump's twitter feed, and include such dramatic material as his spaghetti pizza and his "walk-runs".

Tillerson also refused to discuss his boss' tweeting, saying Trump had "his own unique way" of communicating. "It's served him pretty well and I don't intend to advise him on how to communicate. That's up to him."

However, Labour leader Andrew Little was more than happy to wade in, saying Trump's tweets about London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the aftermath of the London Bridge terror attacks were "ham-fisted and clumsy".

"That can be said about many of Donald Trump's tweets."

Trump might have got an amnesty from English on Twitter, but there was no invitation for him to visit in the diplomatic bag returning with Tillerson - English said it was too close to the election.

Nor were Wellingtonians as diplomatic as English, by the reports of US media.

Although the motorcade carrying Tillerson and his entourage did not feature the usual bonnet flags used for international VIP visits, perhaps its size gave it away - it was greeted with one-finger salutes and the thumbs down.

A longstanding White House reporter said in all the motorcades he'd been in he'd never seen as many people flip the bird at a motorcade as on the route from the airport to Premier House.