At a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, President Donald Trump, standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described a previous Iranian missile attack on the USS Abraham Lincoln but mistakenly substituted a key US ally’s name for Iran. Trump stated that the “Islamic Republic of Japan” had fired over a hundred missiles at the aircraft carrier months earlier, even though Japan has no involvement in the Middle East conflict. The error came as Trump discussed US military capabilities and declared an interim understanding with Iran effectively over, following recent exchanges of strikes and escalating rhetoric between Washington and Tehran. The remark drew attention against the backdrop of a nearly 75-year US-Japan defense alliance.