In his latest faux pas, US President Donald Trump mixed up Japan, a key US ally, with Iran by mistakenly referring to the latter as the “Islamic Republic of Japan.”
It did not end there. Shortly afterward, he mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin while sitting right next to Zelenskyy. Russia and Ukraine have been at war since 2022.
Donald Trump’s mistaken reference to Iran as the ‘Islamic Republic of Japan’ quickly became the defining viral moment of the NATO summit
This created a viral moment that became the talk of the town in Ankara, the Turkish capital, where the NATO summit is taking place.
According to People, while speaking to reporters at the NATO summit venue, Trump, 80, confused the two nations while discussing a missile attack on the USS Abraham Lincoln. “We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan,” he said.
The incident happened when Trump was speaking to reporters at a joint Q&A with Zelenskyy at the NATO summit venue. He was obviously referring to Iran’s attempted attack on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in March.
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a Central Asian nation that has Islam as its state religion. Japan, in contrast, has no state religion. Shinto and Buddhism are the two most popular faiths in East Asia. Muslims form a minuscule minority.
During the Q&A, Trump also asked reporters if they had “a question for President Putin,” when he meant Zelenskyy. As journalists broke out in laughter, Trump tried to manage the situation by saying he’d take any questions for Putin to the Russian leader himself.
While none seemed to have any problem figuring out that Trump was referring to Iran, the incident adds to the list of critical gaffes that have the potential to become larger problems.
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Originally reported by Sreemanti Sengupta on Reality Tea
