11 Jan Key Words: Trump’s new envoy to Holland squirms through one of the most awkward press conferences ever

Welcome home, Peter Hoekstra.

‘This is the Netherlands. You have to answer questions.’

It turns out the U.S. doesn’t have a monopoly on excruciatingly interviews with members of Team Trump.

In his first press conference with the Dutch media since being named the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, Hoekstra — born in Holland but raised in Michigan — was hit with the one question he should have been prepared to answer.

As you can see in this clip, he clearly was not.

The tweet refers to unsubstantiated claims Hoekstra made in 2015 about how the “Islamic movement” was wreaking havoc in the country.

“There are cars being burned, there are politicians that are being burned,” Hoekstra said at the time. “And, yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.” Sounds a lot like Trump’s claim in 2015 that parts of the United Kingdom were effectively off-limits.

This isn’t the first cringe-worthy dodge Hoekstra has executed with such scant aplomb on this topic. Here he is throwing the classic “fake news” counterpunch — and whiffing badly — back in December:

Hoekstra, who has a long history of fueling conspiracy theories about Muslims, was tapped for the job by Trump and confirmed by the Senate in November. He had served 18 years as a Republican congressman from Michigan.