U.S. President Donald Trump mistakenly attributed an Iranian missile attack on a American vessel in the Middle East to the “Islamic Republic of Japan,” sparking widespread coverage across major Japanese news outlets today.
“We had 111 missiles fired by the Islamic Republic of Japan,” Trump stated during a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
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The gaffe, where the president clearly intended to say the Islamic Republic of Iran, was first reported by the Japanese news agency Kyodo. Trump continued addressing the military incident without correcting the geographical mix-up. The meeting included several other high-profile verbal slips, with Trump accidentally addressing Zelensky as “President Putin” and pronouncing the social media platform TikTok as “TicTac.”
American media outlets, including Forbes, heavily highlighted the errors committed by the president, who celebrated his 80th birthday in June. When pressed by reporters regarding the verbal stumbles, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the president’s performance in a statement, emphasizing that Trump had completed a “marathon” schedule of consecutive high-stakes meetings and press conferences throughout the intense diplomatic summit.
