The 45th president of the US has apparently reached the highest level of skill required by the sport of Taekwondo – and has been awarded an honorary black belt.
The president of World Taekwondo Headquarters awarded the former president his honorary ninth-dan black belt, the highest degree, at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida on Nov. 19, 2021, in this photo provided by the headquarters.
According to dailymail – both the South Korean president of Kukkiwon, Lee Dong-seop and Donald Trump gave the following statements:
‘It is my pleasure and honor to receive this honorary certificate. Taekwondo is a great martial art for protecting oneself in these times,’ Trump said.
‘I heard that the Donald Trump is highly interested in taekwondo,’ Lee said.
Plenty of pictures were made available to the public of the meeting.
This promotion effectively means Trump now shares the same rank as current Russian president Vladimir Putin in Taekwondo. Putin was given a black belt and made a grandmaster of taekwondo in 2013.
According to wikipedia for TaekwondoÂ
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The junior section of ranks—the “color belt” ranks—are indicated by the Korean word geup 급 (ç´š) (also Romanized as gup or kup). Practitioners in these ranks generally wear belts ranging in color from white (the lowest rank) to red or brown (higher ranks, depending on the style of Taekwondo). Belt colors may be solid or may include a colored stripe on a solid background. The number of geup ranks varies depending on the style, typically ranging between 8 and 12 geup ranks. The numbering sequence for geup ranks usually begins at the larger number of white belts, and then counts down to “1st geup” as the highest color-belt rank.
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The senior section of ranks—the “black belt” ranks—is typically made up of nine ranks. Each rank is called a dan 단 (段) or “degree” (as in “third dan” or “third-degree black belt”). The numbering sequence for dan ranks is opposite that of geup ranks: numbering begins at 1st dan (the lowest black-belt rank) and counts upward for higher ranks. A practitioner’s degree is sometimes indicated on the belt itself with stripes, Roman numerals, or other methods.
It’s also worth mentioning:
In WT/Kukki-Taekwondo, instructors holding 1st. to 3rd. dan are considered assistant instructors (kyosa-nim), are not yet allowed to issue ranks, and are generally thought of as still having much to learn. Instructors who hold a 4th. to 6th. dan are considered master instructors (sabum-nim), and are allowed to grade students to color belt ranks from 4th. dan, and to black belt/dan-ranks from 6th. dan. Those who hold a 7th–9th dan are considered Grandmasters. These ranks also hold an age requirement of 40+.[40] In this style, a 10th dan rank is sometimes awarded posthumously for practitioners with a lifetime of demonstrable contributions to the practice of Taekwondo.
This effectively means that for Trump (and Putin) to be further promoted they would have to be awarded posthumously.