Donald Trump confused Iran with Japan in a gaffe-loaded press conference overnight.
It was one of a series of bizarre comments from the president while he sat at an event in Ankara alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Donald Trump made a series of gaffes at a press conference in Ankara. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
“We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan,” Trump said.
He also confused Zelensky for his biggest antagonist.
“Do you have a question for President Putin?” Trump said to reporters, gesturing to the Ukrainian leader.
Trump also described social media app TikTok as Tic-Tac and Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran as the JCPOC instead of the JCPOA.
“This blunder is not an isolated incident – it’s just the latest in a long pattern of confusion,” Congressman Mike Quigley said.
“Donald Trump is suffering from dementia,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said.
“Someone needs to step in before it’s too late.”
Trump is not the first president to mix up Putin and Zelensky at a NATO summit.
Almost two years ago to the day, Joe Biden made the same mix-up.
But Biden immediately corrected himself.
“President Putin! He’s going to beat President Putin,” Biden said.
At the time the mix-up was seen as a major gaffe from Biden, who was already under pressure not to run for re-election.
Two weeks later, Biden dropped his re-election bid.
Donald Trump pointed at Volodymyr Zelensky when calling him President Putin. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Trump also took aim at Joe Biden today.
“They thought we were a bunch of fools. They saw a president that couldn’t talk, couldn’t walk,” he said.
“It was a disaster. They lost respect for our country, but now they have more respect for our country than they’ve ever had before.”
Trump has returned from the NATO summit in Ankara after a mysterious detour to a military base in the UK.
Trump went to the NATO summit in Ankara in the new Air Force One gifted to him by the Qatari government.
But he flew to the UK on an older plane before making a switch at an RAF base.
The president said on Truth Social he was sending the “brand new and truly spectacular” Air Force One to Mildenhall Air Force base in the UK to give members of the military a chance to tour the aircraft.
“For old time’s sake, we’ll be taking the former Air Force One, from Turkey to Mildenhall, a short trip that is totally worth doing in order to give our Great Military Heroes a chance to appreciate our beautiful new addition to the Air Force Fleet,” Trump said.
The new Air Force One has only been in operation for a few weeks, raising questions as to why Trump took a second plane from Washington, to Turkey, to the UK.
Trump was asked whether the plane switch was because of security concerns.
“I’m number 1 on the kill list for Iran,” Trump replied.
“I’m on every single one of their lists, and so far I guess I’ve been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn’t last very long, because that’s the way it goes.”
In a later post on Truth Social, Trump said the new plane was sent to RAF Mildenhall “as per the entire base’s request”.
“It was on our way back to the States from Turkey, with virtually no deviation of flightpath,” he said.