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Donald Trump mistakenly claims ‘Islamic Republic of Japan’ fired missiles at US ship

Published 18:35 8 Jul 2026 BST

Updated 18:36 8 Jul 2026 BST

Harry Warner
Donald Trump mistakenly claims ‘Islamic Republic of Japan’ fired missiles at US ship

Homenews

A new country has entered the global stage...

Donald Trump has made just the latest in a string of dozy mistakes today when he accidently said the "Islamic Republic of Japan" fired missiles at a US aircraft carrier.

Obviously, what the 80-year-old president was meant to say was Iran, but made the easily done mistake of confusing it with US ally Japan.

Yep, tough one to even understand other than the fact they both finish with -an and have red on their flags.

Such a mistake is bad enough to make in a room full of your mates, let alone at a NATO summit with the entire world watching...

Speaking alongside Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said: "We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan.

Trump and Zelenskyy. Credit: Getty.

"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, pretty much most by patriots, but by other means also."

It can be inferred that the US president was referencing an attack earlier this year by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This is, of course, not the first time Trump has struggled with geography, previously muddling up Greenland and Iceland.

If you thought all that was bad enough, Trump proceeded to mix up Zelenskyy sat next to him with Russia's Vladimir Putin, asking if anyone had “a question for President Putin".

The leader of 'the free world' everybody.

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