Trump draws parallel between Pearl Harbor and US strikes on Iran in meeting with Japanese PM

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/trump-draws-parallel-between-pearl-harbor-us-strikes-iran-meeting-with-japanese-2026-03-19/

36 Comments

  1. Trump responded to a reporter asking why the
    U.S. didn’t notify U.S. allies before carrying out Operation Epic Fury, in front of Japan’s PM:

    “Who knows better about surprises than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”

  2. Puzzleheaded-Ad-1383 on

    In hindsight wasn’t Pearl Harbor a strategic mistake by Japan? As Admiral Hara Tadaichi summarized, “We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war”.

  3. Wait, what?

    In his comparison the U.S. are the aggressor Japan, and Iran are the defending U.S.?

    WTF.

    February 28th 2026: “A ​date which will live in infamy.”

  4. BangerSlapper1 on

    Because of course he did.  

    He’s so fucking foul and offensive. 

  5. “I thought I was well prepared for the meeting by my team, but clearly not enough for this kind of stupidity.”

    – PM Takaichi

  6. Right wing Japanese press loves to sanitize literally everything that Trump says to the point that Japan’s own diplomatic staff were shocked by how the Trump Administration behaves when they actually met them, I want to be a fly on the wall as they discuss how to sanitize this.

  7. Icyknightmare on

    Ah yes, Pearl Harbor. One of the worst strategic disasters of the 20th century.

  8. trustifarian on

    So, we’re the bad guys. And we’re gonna get curbstomped in a few years. 

  9. Omg.  Yes, let’s bring *that* up when talking with the Japanese PM.

    The unfortunate truth is that he’s demented and nobody’s doing anything about it.  This is the sort of thing old people so when they’ve started to lose their marbles.

  10. PriestofAlvis on

    Trump doesn’t know what a parallel even is. Stop trying to normalize his syphilitic ramblings.

  11. I used to think he was purposely inflammatory. A feigned idiot who was good at getting support from his base. Clearly, he’s just stupid.

  12. Soooo if we’re drawing parallels to Pearl Harbor that means that the US (and daddy Israel) are unequivocally the bad guys right?

    He’s so dumb it hurts

  13. IllButterscotch5964 on

    Draws parallel. Yes that’s what he was doing. God I’m sick of the news covering for his fucking idiocy.

  14. redbirdrising on

    “This can’t be as bad as the headline makes it seem”

    (Clicks link)

    Oh shit, it’s worse, it’s way worse.

  15. restore_democracy on

    You’d say he must be the dumbest motherfucker who ever lived except that over 70 million people voted for him.

  16. > “Who knows better about surprises than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”

    This just goes to show that it really is about nothing else for these fucking idiots than the retort. Getting the final jab, the ability to say you “owned” someone else. Screw the implications of whatever is said, so long as you look good on right wing media clapping back at a reporter.

    To be clear, with this statement, Trump just:

    – Dug up an eighty year old atrocity committed by a long dead imperialist Japan and directly tied it to the current, peaceful, democratic Japan who have been faithful friends to the USA for over half a century

    – Did the above TO THE FUCKING FACE OF THE CURRENT JAPANESE PM

    – Overtly positioned the USA unequivocally as on the moral low ground in this war, given the near-universal moral condemnation of Pearl Harbor

    Worst of all: by likening his own actions in Iran to Pearl Harbor, and maintaining that what he’s doing in Iran is a good thing, he’s declared to the world that Pearl Harbor type events are _actually a good thing_.

  17. FlyinBrian2001 on

    I feel like he managed to insult both Japan and America with that one, I’d be impressed if it wasn’t just so monumentally stupid

  18. everythingisemergent on

    40% of Americans approve of Trump. America’s #1 enemy was never Iran, China, or Russia. It’s you.

  19. CrazyNewspaperFace on

    This is possibly the worst thing ever mentioned in the Oval Office. Disrespectful to both sides of each country’s largest conflict and sacrifice.

  20. Helenium_autumnale on

    Heard this live on a news channel and said “Oh, my God” out loud. The scale of awful cringe and sheer gauche behavior is WAY off the charts. He is such an embarrassment.

  21. Illustrious_Aside_35 on

    More than 70 years of carefully built soft power destroyed all at once by this absolute idiot.

    Congratulations to everyone who voted for this absolute piece of shit. Without you the American empire might’ve had a century or two more to go.

  22. Sooooo … this ends with Iran fire bombing Washington DC and dropping a nuke on Philadelphia and Seattle then rewriting the US Constitution and making trump renounce his claim to being God-emperor?