Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has long lived with allegations that, at first, he was too handsome to be a man of substance and, secondly, that he spoke a lot, but said very little. He met the first problem by growing a beard. He counted another problem this week by remaining silent for 21 seconds, saying everything.

Trudeau was asked how he assesses the situation in the United States and what he thinks about the fact that US President Donald Trump wants to use the military in the country and peaceful protesters walk away with tear gas So that he can take his picture in front of a church. Trudeau refrains from criticizing Trump, but this time he is all out.

For the first five silent seconds that didn’t seem unusual. It looked like Trudeau was thinking. He opened his mouth. He kept his mouth shut. After another five seconds, Trudeau took a breath. Then he sucked her lips. He pressed his lips together. Finally he made a noise, an uh, that sounded like a groan. Rarely did the expression of eloquent silence occur as well at this time. When Trudeau finally began speaking, he made no mention of Trump.

History is full of great silence, just to name two particularly silent people, the Dutch prince Wilhelm von Nassau-Dillenberg (Willem de Zwijer) and the Italian footballer Enzo Beyerjot, who is called “Frante to Silent” and coach. In 1982, Italy won the World Championship title.

Justin Trudeau has now become one of those people whose real message now depends on the ephemerality of the word. He has taken a new step in his career, and the next step should be that, openly, shaved as quickly as a rather silly beard.