Donald Trump makes wildly inappropriate joke in entrance of Japanese PM that leaves everybody shocked

Sanae Takaichi’s event in the Oval Office was going relatively smoothly until a Japanese reporter asked him why he didn’t inform US allies, including Japan, about his plan to bomb Iran

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Donald Trump was met with a stunned silence after making a joke about Pearl Harbour in front of the Japanese Prime Minister.

Sanae Takaichi is visiting the White House today for talks with the US President.

And the event in the Oval Office was going relatively smoothly until a Japanese reporter asked him why he didn’t inform US allies, including Japan, about his plan to bomb Iran.

“One thing, you don’t want to signal too much,” Trump replied. “We went in very hard, and we didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise.”

“Who knows better about surprise than Japan?” he joked, to some nervous laughter.

But the laughter stopped abruptly when he took the joke further.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbour? OK? Right?” Trump said.

Japan’s surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet at its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii in December 1941 pulled the US into World War II.

Declaring war against Japan the following day, US president Franklin D. Roosevelt famously labelled December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy.”

To a suddenly silent room, Trump went on: “He’s asking me …no you believe in surprise much more than us. And we had to surprise them, and that’s what we did.”

During the meeting, Takaichi, Keir Starmer and the leaders of five other nations issued a joint statement condemning “in the strongest terms” Iranian attacks on shipping and oil and gas facilities, as well as the “de facto closure” of the strait.

The PM and the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan said: “We express our deep concern about the escalating conflict.

“We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the strait to commercial shipping, and to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2817.”

Resolution 2817, approved on March 11, condemned Iran’s attacks on its neighbours and called on Tehran to cease hostilities.

The leaders also expressed their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts” to reopen the strait and take “other steps to stabilise energy markets”.

At the beginning of the event, Takaichi told Trump that Japan has opposed Iran’s development of its nuclear program and appealed to his desire to be seen as a peacemaker, despite launching a war of choice with Iran, by telling him through an interpreter: “Even against that backdrop, I firmly believe that it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world.”

The agenda of Taikaichi’s meeting has shifted in the wake of the Iran war. The meeting at the White House, followed by a dinner later tonight, was supposed to give Japan’s new prime minister a prime opportunity to have Trump’s ear before he embarked on a trip to China.

But now, the war in Iran and Trump’s unsuccessful call for Japan and other nations to help protect the vital Strait of Hormuz means the China trip has been delayed.

Trump had repeatedly complained on camera and online that US allies, including Japan, rejected his request to help safeguard the critical waterway for oil and gas transport.

The prime minister acknowledged before she left Japan that she expected her meeting with Trump “will be “very difficult.”

But on Thursday, the two leaders had warm words for each other in public. Before Takaichi praised Trump, he called her a “popular powerful woman.”

He told reporters that they would be discussing in their meeting Japan’s level of support for the US in the Iran war, saying, “They are really stepping up to the plate.” He did not offer details.