What to Know
President Donald Trump made a crude Pearl Harbor joke Thursday while defending his decision to strike Iran without informing U.S. allies, including Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. A reporter pressed Trump on why he decided to not inform U.S. allies, including Japan, about his decision to strike Iran. Trump argued that the operation had to be done as a “surprise” before referencing Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 that ultimately dragged the U.S. into World War II.
“When we go in, we went in very hard, and we didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise in Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?” Trump told the reporter, sparking some laughs and groans.
“He’s asking me, do you believe in surprise?” he continued.
“I think much more so than us, and we had a surprise, and we did, and because of that surprise, we knocked out the first two days. We probably knocked out 50% of what we and much more than we anticipated doing. So if I go and tell everybody about it, there’s no longer a surprise, right?” he said.
Trump’s joke about Pearl Harbor sparked immediate outcry on X. Journalist Jim Acosta captioned the video, “The Art of the Cringe,” a reference to Trump’s book, “The Art of the Deal.”
The Atlantic’s David Frum wrote: “It’s tiresome to have to keep saying that he shames his office, but he shames his office.”
Political strategist Keith Edwards observed that he saw the prime minister “cringe in real time.”
Political commentator Hemant Mehta wrote: “Is it too much to ask that the most embarrassing man in the country not represent us in front of visiting guests?”
MeidasTouch, a liberal media outlet, noted that Trump was born “years after Pearl Harbor.” “Holy s—. Even for Trump this is bad,” MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski said on X.
Podcaster Adam Mockler said Trump “has spent the past two years antagonizing and berating the international community.” He said that Trump is “f—king befuddled that this same community won’t put their assets on the line in a suicide mission to protect ships.”
Trump has been lashing out at NATO allies for not immediately agreeing to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz during the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. He told reporters on Tuesday that he was “disappointed” with NATO.
“Well, I’m disappointed in NATO that we spend trillions of dollars on NATO. Think of it, trillions over the years, many trillions of dollars. It’s one of the reasons we have deficits and we help other countries and when they don’t help us,” he said on Tuesday.
“I mean, it’s certainly something that we should think about,” Trump said when asked whether he was considering leaving the alliance.
In a Tuesday post on Truth Social, Trump declared that the U.S. did not need help from NATO.
“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea. In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!” Trump wrote.
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Lauren Sforza | NJ.com; nj.com; (TNS) || ©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit nj.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
