MS NOW host Nicolle Wallace had a frank reaction on Thursday after President Donald Trump made a jaw-dropping comment that shocked people inside the Oval Office during a White House meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Wallace was visibly stunned after discussing Trump's attempted joke that clearly left the room uncomfortable when a reporter asked why Trump hadn't warned his allies that the U.S.-Israeli military strikes were coming.
"One thing, you don't want to signal too much when we go in," Trump said. "We went in very hard and we didn't tell anyone about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?"
Wallace watched the video playback and commented on Trump, asking her panel to share their thoughts.
"I struggle every minute of every day with platforming him, one, I should do it all day because it shows what a profound idiot he is," Wallace said. "But but two, we were on other sides. This is a question about why didn't you read in your allies? And he says, we didn't know what our adversary was going to do. I mean, David Frum, what do you even, how's your brain doing?"
Frum, a Canadian-American commentator and former speechwriter, described why Trump's words shocked the Japanese leader and dignitaries visiting America.
"So first, there's probably no society on earth where good manners count for more than Japan, a country that has been — and we're talking about 80 years since the end of World War II, that has been a staunch and loyal ally of the United States for 80 years, where the warmth of person to person ties," Frum said. "But the one big cultural difference has always been the emphasis on decorum and decency and respect in Japanese culture, whereas American culture can be a little more boisterous. For the president of the United States to insult them, and you can watch it, sort of figuring out 'No one is amused by what I just said. Maybe if I say it again, it'll get more amusing the second time. And what if I say right, right, right. And give them a little jab in the ribs? Maybe it'll be funny then.'"
Frum described why it was so surprising — and why it left them silent.
"And it's just horrifying. One more thing that needs to be pointed out in this analogy that he's drawing between the United States and Japan, who's doing the sneak attack?" Frum added. "Oh, yeah. He's comparing the United States to the Japanese sneak attack. He wanted to do a Pearl Harbor on Greenland. Now he wants to do a Pearl Harbor on Iran. He is comparing himself to the people whom Americans normally condemn, and then elbowing the Japanese that they don't think the whole thing is terribly amusing."