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U.S. President Donald Trump confused Japan with Iran during remarks at the NATO Summit in Ankara on Wednesday, referring to the "Islamic Republic of Japan" while describing a missile barrage against an American aircraft carrier.
Standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said 111 missiles had been fired at the USS Abraham Lincoln over approximately one hour, adding that every projectile had been intercepted. The remarks came as Trump addressed U.S. military readiness amid ongoing tensions with Iran.
While praising the carrier, Trump appeared to conflate the two nations mid-sentence.
"Which is one of the most beautiful in the world. It's one of the biggest, the Abraham Lincoln, and two months ago we had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan," he said, before continuing: "They were shot at the aircraft carrier over a period of about one hour, 111 missiles going to a very expensive ship, and every one of those missiles was knocked down."
Iran's formal name is the Islamic Republic of Iran. Japan, a close U.S. ally and host to a significant American military presence, has no involvement in the Iran conflict.
The verbal slip occurred as Trump addressed the NATO gathering on the broader U.S.-Iran confrontation. He warned that Washington was prepared to carry out additional military strikes and declared the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding effectively over.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier and one of the largest warships in the U.S. Navy. It has previously been deployed to the Persian Gulf region during periods of heightened tension with Iran.
Iran's ballistic missile program has been a central flashpoint in relations between Tehran and Washington for years, with the Islamic Republic having conducted large-scale missile strikes against regional targets in recent years.
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