Jimmy Kimmel cringed when watching back footage of Donald Trump‘s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Thursday (March 19), after the president made an off-color joke about Pearl Harbor.
“Trump is hoping Japan will offer military assistance for his war in the Middle East, but instead the prime minister brought him 250 cherry trees to commemorate our 250th anniversary,” the late-night host said on Thursday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! “This is a guy who paved over the rose garden. What is he going to do with 250 cherry trees? Probably use them to build a Waffle House or something.”
Kimmel noted how Trump “very much” wants Japan to support his war on Iran. “He asked the prime minister to send us a Godzilla, and she said no,” he quipped.
“We often cringe when real leaders come to visit ours,” Kimmel continued. “But today, I think we hit a new level of discomfort as FDArbys answered a reporter from Japan in an absolutely astonishing way.”
He then played a clip from the meeting, where a reporter asked Trump why he didn’t warn Japan and other U.S. allies about his decision to strike Iran. The president responded, “We went in very hard and we didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay, why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”
Trump was referencing Japan’s attack on the United States Pacific Fleet at its naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in 1941, five years before the president was born. The attack led to the U.S. joining World War II.
As the studio audience reacted in shock, Kimmel said, “I guess we should be grateful he didn’t do an accent? What is going on through that orange head of his?”
He added, “Let me tell you, there’s no doubt in my mind that everything he knows about Pearl Harbor begins and ends with a movie starring Ben Affleck.”
Elsewhere in the monologue, Kimmel touched on the Pentagon’s $200 billion request to fund the conflict in the Middle East. The comedian suggested that money would be better spent on making Trump “go away.”
“I think instead of spending all this money on weapons to drop on people, why don’t we just offer Trump a hundred billion of it to go away?” he stated. “Listen, Mr. President, you don’t have to sell any more hats, any more Bibles. It’s cash up front. Just go back to Florida.”
You can watch Kimmel’s full opening monologue in the video above and let us know your thoughts below.
Commented