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“Who knows better about surprise?”: Trump cracks Pearl Harbor joke in front of Japanese PM

Sitting next to the Japanese prime minister, Trump made a surprising joke about the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor

Published March 19, 2026 4:02PM (EDT)

Donald Trump cracked wise about Pearl Harbor during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Thursday.

While taking questions at the White House alongside Takaichi, Trump was asked about the U.S. decision to leave allies in the dark ahead of its attack on Iran. Trump said that American forces wanted to maintain the element of surprise before joking that Japan knew a thing or two about surprises.

“You don’t want to signal too much. We went in very hard and we didn’t anybody about it because we wanted surprise,” he said. “Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?

Trump turned to the audience laughing, in an “am I right? aside.

“He’s asking me. You believe in surprise, I think, much more so than us,” he said. “We had to surprise them. And we did.”

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Japan attacked the American naval fleet in Hawaii in 1941, killing more than 2400 service members. The attack on the base, as well as similar attacks in the Philippines and Guam, spurred the United States to declare war on Japan. The two countrieshave been allies since 1951, when the Treaty of San Francisco brought an official end to World War 2 and the occupation of Japan by allied forces.

Watch the moment below via C-SPAN:

Q: "Why didn't you tell U.S. allies…about the war before attacking Iran?" President Trump: "We wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?" pic.twitter.com/esV9iyvMiV — CSPAN (@cspan) March 19, 2026

Q: "Why didn't you tell U.S. allies…about the war before attacking Iran?"

President Trump: "We wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?" pic.twitter.com/esV9iyvMiV

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 19, 2026

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