During the time leading up to El Salvador’s presidential election, 38-year-old conservative Nayib Bukele heavily relied on the use of social media to maintain a seemingly approachable, deceptively hyper-connected link to the people he’s now leading and representing on global platforms. Though he’s proven that may very well not be the case, he continues to establish that brand worldwide.
When Bukele stood behind the lectern at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, he pulled out an iPhone and snapped a selfie.
“Whether we want to accept it or not, social media becomes the real world more and more each day,” he said to the global leaders gathered at the assembly in New York City, assuring them more people would see his selfie than watch the discourse he was in the middle of giving. “The world is changing and the general assembly continues being the same.”
According to The Washington Post, he instead proposed crowdsourcing ideas from the minds we know will likely save us all. In a desperate attempt to make himself seem ordinary, Bukele urged the U.N. to make ordinary people a part of their solution-making strategies.
On the other hand, in a recent exchange between President Donald Trump and Bukele that’s as digestible as a sandpaper smoothie, we see the Salvadoran president swoon over a man whose policies and rhetoric affect both Salvadorans on the mainland and at home.
Starting off that Wednesday’s meeting with an unfunny joke, he said, “We look forward to working with President Trump for the next five years.”
Out-of-touch humor aside, this isn’t just a dad, he’s a cool dad, according to him. “President Trump is very nice and cool, and I’m nice and cool, too,” Bukele said. “We both use Twitter a lot. So, we’ll get along.”
They very well might.