President Donald Trump referenced the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during an Oval Office meeting with Japan’s prime minister on Thursday.
Watch the clip in the video player above.
A reporter asked Trump why he did not inform U.S. allies in Europe and Asia, like Japan, before attacking Iran in late February.
“We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan?” the president responded while sitting next to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. “Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Right?”
The Japanese bombing of the U.S. Naval station in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killed 2,390 U.S. military personnel and civilians on Dec. 7, 1941. The attack launched the U.S. into World War II.
