Finland's then US ambassador Mikko Hautala wanted to prevent Trump, who had expressed himself harshly about NATO, from influencing a vote in the US Senate on Finland's membership in a negative direction.
Hautala therefore had "a few phone calls" with Trump in 2022, writes Helsingin Sanomat.
The purpose was to present the motivations behind Finland's application and Finland's strengths, said Hautala.
The strategy worked, writes NYT: "Trump, who with a single angry comment on social media could have sparked Republican resistance, kept quiet, and the Senate voted 95 to 1 in favor of Finland's membership".
A row of heads of state
Finland's ambassador is not the only foreign diplomat who has contacted Donald Trump, despite him lacking a formal foreign policy role.
Heads of state such as Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelenskyj, Poland's President Andrzej Duda, and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are some of those who have recently visited Trump at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago or Trump Tower in New York.
Although many former presidents maintain contacts with world leaders, Trump's role is considered unusual.
As a potential future president, he has the potential power to deliver for foreign leaders not too far in the future, says Jeremy Shapiro, research director at the think tank ECFR, to NYT.
"Potential security risk"
Trump's actions can also constitute a "greater national security risk", according to researcher Brian Katulis at the Middle East Institute.
Trump ran the White House like a dictatorship in the Middle East, so these actions are in line with that, says Katulis.
