"One thing you don't want to signal too much, you know, 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 than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?"
"The Japanese attack on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, took place on 7 December 1941, five years before Trump was born. It killed 2,390 Americans and the US declared war on Japan the next day. Then president Franklin Delano Roosevelt called it a date which will live in infamy."
"I'm sorry, but this is legit hilarious. If only he wasn't the president and just a character on TV. We could laugh our heads off without any sense of unease, dread, or embarrassment."
During an Oval Office meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Trump responded to a question about not informing allies before attacking Iran by joking about surprise tactics and asking why Japan didn't tell him about Pearl Harbor. The comment referenced the December 7, 1941 attack that killed 2,390 Americans and prompted US entry into World War II. Takaichi visibly reacted with discomfort as the room's laughter ceased. Trump supporters praised the response as a great off-the-cuff moment, while critics found it inappropriate and emblematic of unpresidential behavior. The incident reflected Trump's pattern of making awkward historical references during diplomatic encounters.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]