Trump cracks a joke about Pearl Harbor
WASHINGTON— Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told her country’s lawmakers before heading to Washington that her meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday will be “very difficult.”
It was actually weird.
After a reporter asked Trump about his failure to warn Japan before launching its “surprise” attack on Iran, Trump said the surprise was the point.
“Who knows the surprise better than Japan?” said Trump, turning to a visibly nervous Takaichi sitting next to him. “Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, okay?”
The joke hung in the air. Short, quiet laughter was heard.
Takaichi’s eyes looked wide but he kept his expression neutral as the cameras rolled. He did not comment on the president’s remarks. (He smiled at other times during their interviews.)
When the leaders of the United States and Japan brought up the events of December 7, 1941, the day of “infamy” that dragged the United States into World War II, conditions were much more serious.
In 2016, President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scattered petals in the waters of Pearl Harbor in memory of the more than 2,400 people killed in the attack. Abe laid a wreath in memory of those who died.
Speaking to World War II veterans after paying tribute at the Pearl Harbor memorial, Abe said, “Ours is an alliance of hope that will carry us into the future.” “What binds us together is the power of compromise made possible by the spirit of tolerance.”
Japan, long constrained by its pacifist constitution, is now under intense pressure from the White House to support the US-led war in Iran.
“Look, I expect Japan to step up because, you know, we have that kind of relationship and we’re stepping up in Japan. We have 45,000 troops in Japan,” Trump said. “We spend a lot of money on Japan and we have that kind of relationship.”
Trump has made a habit of going off script in televised meetings with foreign leaders in the Oval Office.
The meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky resulted in Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance repeatedly calling Zelensky “Second III.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he was “ambushed” when he visited the White House when Trump dimmed the lights and played a video supporting claims of white genocide in South Africa that have been widely debunked.
By comparison, the Japanese prime minister’s summit in Washington was tame. Takaichi focused his statements on a new $550 billion trade agreement that includes Alaska oil.
As for Iran, Takaichi had signaled that America, along with its European allies, would not send warships to the embattled Persian Gulf to protect oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. But Takaichi also promised cooperation in other areas, perhaps in a logistics support role.
“I firmly believe that only you can achieve world-wide peace, Donald,” he told Trump. he said.
