Trump Gaffe: Calls Iran 'Islamic Republic of Japan'

US President Donald Trump mistakenly referred to Iran as the ‘Islamic Republic of Japan’ whilst discussing Tehran’s missile attack on a US aircraft carrier several months ago. The gaffe occurred during a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, following their meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. In the same session, Trump also erroneously addressed Zelensky, who was seated beside him, as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s arch-foe. During the impromptu and relaxed press conference, Trump initially praised the prowess of US defence weaponry before recounting an incident involving the USS Abraham Lincoln. ‘We had a carrier, one of the most beautiful in the world, one of the biggest, the Abraham Lincoln,’ the 80-year-old Trump said. ‘And a few months ago, I told you this yesterday, we had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan,’ the US President stated, apparently intending to say ‘Islamic Republic of Iran’ but misspeaking. He recounted that the missiles were fired at the US carrier within an hour and were all intercepted. ‘They fired them at the carrier over a period of about an hour. One hundred and eleven missiles going after a very expensive ship, and every one of them was knocked down, mostly by Patriot, but also by other means,’ Trump said. Trump appeared to be referring to an Iranian attack on the US carrier earlier in the year amid the raging Middle East conflict, though he inexplicably named Japan as the aggressor, despite Japan not having launched an attack against the US for nearly a century. Although the Japanese Armed Forces were a threat to US carriers and naval assets during the Second World War, the two nations have been close allies since Japan’s defeat. Later in the same press conference, Trump made another gaffe, mistakenly addressing Zelensky as Putin when asking reporters if they had ‘questions for President Putin’. The blunder drew laughter from the room, with Trump attempting to recover by repeating the question and joking that he would relay the reporters’ questions to the Russian leader. The slip-ups occurred hours after Trump announced that a fragile ceasefire with Iran had ended, following renewed attacks. The US military struck dozens of Iranian targets in retaliation for attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, which were believed to be orchestrated by Tehran. In a separate session at the NATO summit, Trump called Iran’s leaders ‘scum’ and vowed that the US ‘will probably hit them hard again tonight’. He also described Iran as being led by ‘sick people’ whilst asserting: ‘I don’t want to deal with them anymore.’