The tyranny of diplomacy by Sharpie

A closer look at history reveals that Trump is only the latest in a long line of strong-man leaders to scrawl their way into a bind

The president said he knew nothing about any hand-written additions to the map (AP)

In the few years since he became president, Donald Trump has turned his beloved Sharpie collection into a potent political weapon. From his recent doctored hurricane map to the infamous marker-written notes for the Canadian prime minister, he has mastered the art of creating crises with a stroke of a pen.

But he’s not the first world leader to do so. A closer look at history reveals that Trump is only the latest in a long line of strong-man leaders to scrawl their way into a bind.

Who can forget Benjamin Netanyahu, one of Trump’s closest foreign allies, deploying an unnervingly thick red marker pen at the United Nations in 2012 to demonstrate the danger of Iran’s nuclear programme?