“Why is China stalling so badly economically, why is Japan having trouble, why is Russia, why is India, because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants. Immigrants are what make us strong,” he told a Washington fundraiser on Wednesday.

The insult is being especially keenly felt over here in Tokyo; it comes less than a month after a lavish and carefully choreographed love in between Biden and Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida. There was a marching band, a formal state dinner, and an atmosphere of mutual admiration all designed to present the two leaders as not just staunch allies but bosom buddies.

Nobody over here much bought into that representation — the mini-summit was seen as being mainly for domestic consumption from two under-pressure leaders — but the swiftness of the change of tone is still surprising in its sheer, brazen rudeness. And gall (Biden has condemned Donald Trump for anti-immigrant rhetoric on numerous occasions). It’s as if a colleague whom you always imagined you had reasonable relations with suddenly tells you they hate your guts.