Room Goes Silent After Trump Makes Super Tone-Deaf Joke To Japanese Prime Minister About Pearl Harbor In Shocking Video

The audience in the Oval Office went silent after President Donald Trump made a tone-deaf joke about the attack on Pearl Harbor to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi following a question about why he kept his attack on Iran a "surprise."

Trump was wrapping up a Q&A with reporters during a bilateral meeting with Takaichi when a Japanese journalist pressed him on why key allies—like Japan—were not notified ahead of the attack on Iran on February 28.

He said:

"One thing [is] you don't want to signal too much. You know that when we go in, we went very hard and we didn't tell anyone about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan?"

"Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Okay? Right?"

Someone groaned audibly and the room went silent. Takaichi, who has a strong command of English, stopped smiling and her eyes widened as the remark sank in.

Trump continued:

"You believe in surprise much moreso than us and we had to surprise them and we did. And because of that surprise, the first two days we knocked out 50 percent and probably much more than we anticipated."

"If I go and tell everybody about it, there's no longer a surprise, right?"

You can hear what Trump said in the video below.

On December 7, 1941, in a surprise military strike, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attacked Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii, killing 2,403 Americans and wounding 1,178 others.

At the time, Hawaii was not yet a state. The United States claimed several once independent island nations as territories partly for the purposes of refueling stops for cross Pacific air and naval missions.

The U.S. was a neutral country at the time and the attack on its military base in the territory of Hawaii led to its formal entry into World War II the next day.

The U.S. and Japan are now strong allies—but bringing that up is still a major faux pas that is bad even for Trump, who is notorious for fraying international relations.

This is at least the second time Trump has embarrassed himself in the company of Takaichi.

Last year, he made a visit to Japan aimed at boosting Japanese investment in the U.S. following the election of Takaichi, the country’s first female prime minister. But things took an awkward turn during a welcoming ceremony in Tokyo.

Trump appeared to lose his bearings as he walked through a room filled with dignitaries and a military band, momentarily leaving Takaichi behind. The incident, captured on video, quickly circulated online, sparking fresh discussion about Trump’s cognitive decline.