Donald Trump
falsely claimed to ‘remember Pearl Harbor’ as he ranted at Japanese PM
Donald Trump bizarrely claimed to
remember the start of World War II in a tense phone call with Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe, the Washington Post reports.
In the tense June call, Trump told
Abe that “I remember Pearl Harbor,” referring to the attack that brought the
United States into the Second World war, which concluded before Trump was born
in 1946.
Trump’s rant was part of “a
blistering critique of Japan’s economic policies,” sources told the Post and complained that the Japanese don’t buy as
many American goods as Americans buy Japanese goods.
“The meeting, which left Abe exasperated, epitomized the paradoxical nature of Trump’s closest relationship with a foreign leader,” the Post reports.
The story says that Abe, who has met
with Trump eight times, is one of Trump’s favorite foreign leaders.
“I’ve never heard him [trash]-talk
Abe. And you can’t say that about a lot of the world leaders,” said a U.S.
official who spoke anonymously.
Abe has to hold Trump’s hand
throughout conversations where he rages, the story says.
“During heated exchanges, Japanese
officials say Abe waits for Trump to make his point, and finds an opening later
on in the conversation to rebut him,” the story says, because Abe “understands
if he categorically denies what the president says, it might hurt the president’s
pride.”
Read the full report here.