Trump — No Tie Guy
When language, love, and Trump mix — confusion is guaranteed.
It was June when I visited my fiancée in Japan. We still couldn’t decide whether to live there or in the States — and I had just started learning Japanese, often hearing things completely wrong. She showed me temples, gardens, and glowing city streets, clearly trying to seduce me into staying.
That evening we went to a sushi bar. We talked and laughed as usual — until my attention drifted to the next table. Three young men were eating nigiri, dipping pieces into soy sauce and chatting excitedly.
I wouldn’t have noticed them at all, except for one phrase that cut through their voices.
“Trump — no tie guy!” The words came out in a thick Japanese accent.
At first, I thought I’d misheard. But after a while, they mentioned Trump again. It sounded quite odd. Then one of them repeated, “Trump — no tie guy!” They seemed to be discussing the U.S. president with strange, misplaced enthusiasm. A moment later, I caught what sounded like “Trump — no joke!”, which made me even more puzzled — and intrigued.
I tried to focus on my conversation with Fumiko-san, but those excited voices about Trump kept spinning in my head. Finally, my fiancée looked at me, worried.
“What’s wrong?”
“Those guys,” I whispered. “Why are they so obsessed with Trump? And why is he ‘no tie guy’?”
She listened for a moment… then giggled, throwing me off even more.
“No, no, Nick-san,” she said. “They’re saying ‘Toranpu no taikai’ — it simply means ‘a card tournament.’ One of those is coming up soon. ‘Toranpu’ — that’s how they say ‘cards’ in Japanese!”
I couldn't help laughing.
She snorted, looked at me, and laughed back.
Unexpectedly enough, Trump somehow kept following us all evening.
Well…
Eventually, Fumiko decided to move to the U.S. -
not because of Trump, but because she wanted to collect more of those wonderful misunderstandings, this time hearing English through her Japanese ear.
— E Lin Grant
© Erian Lin Grant, 2025
About the Creator
Erian Lin Grant
Writer | Poet | Storyteller — tracing the quiet spaces between chaos and calm.
= Kindness is a form of strength =
Keep reading
More stories from Erian Lin Grant and writers in Fiction and other communities.
The Sun in Her Palm
Isabelle inserted the flash drive labeled “NEVER” into the computer and, after a moment’s hesitation, pressed Enter. The image broke through the hiss and blur — a street-cam feed, unstable but real. From the very first seconds of the video, Bella realized she had always been looking the wrong way. She had built her life around tomorrow — blind to what lingered behind, never daring to uncover the buried pieces of her past.
By Erian Lin Grant2 months ago in Fiction
How to Care for the Thing Growing in the Basement
Introduction: If you are reading this, the thing has already begun. This guide exists because no one told you what to do the first time. Because you were handed keys and a warning that sounded like a joke. Because someone said, It’s nothing, really, and then changed the subject.
By Aspen Nobleabout 22 hours ago in Fiction
FPS: The Last Flame Challenge Winners
Welcome to our first Winners Announcement of the year and to the final challenge in the Fall Poetry Series. The Last Flame invited writers to sit with endings, using fire as a central image to consider what remains when something burns out: ash, warmth, memory, silence, or the faint promise of what comes next. The strongest pieces treated endings as gradual rather than sudden, allowing them to flicker, dim, and linger.
By Vocal Curation Team6 days ago in Resources
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.