Trump praises Japan for ‘stepping up’ on Iran in bilateral meeting, says he won’t be sending ground troops 

President Donald Trump hosted Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the White House Thursday, where he praised Japan for “stepping up to the plate” on the Iran conflict and clarified he was “not putting troops anywhere” on the ground.

Japan is one of the U.S. allies that Trump has been pushing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, amid disruptions that have led to surging gas and oil prices since the start of Operation Epic Fury.

Asked by a reporter if he was satisfied with Japan’s level of support in Iran, Trump said “we’re going to be speaking about it today” but added that “we’ve had tremendous support and relationship with Japan on everything.”

“I expect Japan to step up because, you know, we have that kind of relationship and we step up with Japan,” he said later in the news conference. “We have 45,000 soldiers in Japan. We spend a lot of money on Japan, and we’ve had that kind of a relationship. So, I’m not surprised that they would step up.”

Trump said that although the U.S. doesn’t “need anything” from “Japan or from anyone else,” Japan should help since “they get more than 90% of their oil through the strait.”

In a viral moment, a Japanese reporter asked Trump why he didn’t tell allies, including Japan, about the strikes in Japan before they happened.

“Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?,” Trump quipped back. He noted that the military operation’s success depended on an element of surprise and said he didn’t want “to signal too much” before striking.

Trump’s comments regarding U.S. allies came after Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier on Thursday that the world, including “our ungrateful allies in Europe,” should be thanking Trump for stopping Iran from attempting to build a nuclear bomb. Hegseth also defended the Pentagon’s reported request for $200 billion in additional funding for military operations in Iran.

“I think that number could move obviously,” Hegseth said. “It takes money to kill bad guys. So we’re going back to Congress and our folks there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future.”

The president reiterated at the White House that “Iran is a serious threat to the world” and said the additional war funding is for “a lot of reasons beyond even what we’re talking about in Iran.”

“This is a very volatile world,” he said, before accusing the Biden administration of recklessly draining military resources without replacing them. “I rebuilt the military my first term, Biden gave away so stupidly to Afghanistan.” 

Japan’s prime minister spoke briefly on the global impacts of the conflict in Iran to Japan and elsewhere. 

“We are actually experiencing a very severe security environment, and also the global economy is now about to experience a huge hit because of this development,” Takaichi said, through a translator. “But even against that backdrop, I firmly believe that it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world.”

She agreed with Trump that Iran should never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and strongly condemned Iran for “attacking the neighboring region and also the de facto or effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.”

The meeting was widely considered to put Takaichi in a delicate position, as she seeks to please Trump while navigating constraints from home. Not only does Japan’s pacifist Constitution prevent it from getting entangled in many foreign military interventions, as the New York Times reported, but only 9% of Japanese voters support the U.S. attacks in Iran.