Trump Makes Wild Pearl Harbor Crack During Meeting With Japanese PM

 

President Donald Trump referenced Pearl Harbor while discussing his strategy with Iran with Japan’s prime minister awkwardly sitting next to him at the White House on Thursday.

Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took questions from the press during an Oval Office meeting, and when a Japanese reporter asked Trump why he did not warn his European and Asian allies — like Japan — about his strikes on Iran, Trump brought up Pearl Harbor.

The surprise attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor during World War II occurred on December 7, 1941.

“Why did you not tell me about Pearl Harbor?” Trump asked the reporter, later also claiming Japan believes in “surprise” more than the U.S.

Takaichi remained silent while Trump answered and did not offer a response of her own. The Japanese reporter had said allies like Japan were “confused” by Trump’s actions. Both the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran late last month, with Trump calling them an imminent threat in terms of their potential to get a nuclear weapon.

Trump said he did not want to “signal” that his strikes were happening, citing Pearl Harbor.

He said:

One thing, you don’t want to signal too much. When we went in, we went in very hard and did not tell anybody about it because we wanted the surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why did you not tell me about Pearl Harbor? Okay, right? He is asking me — now you believe in surprise, I think, much more so than us, and we had to surprise them, and we did. And because of that surprise we knocked out in the first two days, probably knocked out 50% of — and much more than we anticipated. So if I go and tell everybody about it, it’s no longer a surprise, right?

Watch above via Fox News.

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Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.