President Donald Trump has not been charitable about politicians’ verbal gaffes.
He once played a video of Joe Biden’s verbal stumbles at a 2022 rally. During the 2024 campaign, he ridiculed Biden for mixing up Trump and Kamala Harris, saying, “Great job, Joe!” And in 2018, Trump joined in the longstanding conservative lampooning of Barack Obama’s misstatement that he had visited 57 states.
“Can you imagine if I said that,” Trump posted on X, adding: “story of the year!”
In fact, Trump has now said things like that over and over again.
That was perhaps best exemplified by an appearance Wednesday at the NATO summit in Turkey, in which Trump made three significant errors — including calling Iran “the Islamic Republic of Japan” — in less than 10 minutes while speaking next to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. But he’s had plenty of other gaffes recently.
A recap of some of his biggest recent flubs and mix-ups:
Iran and Japan
While recounting a clash in Iran, Trump inadvertently referred to the “Islamic Republic of Japan” — which isn’t a thing.
“I told this story yesterday: We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan,” Trump said. “They were shot at the aircraft carrier over a period of about one hour.”
Misnaming the JCPOA
Trump has made a big show of decrying the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, which was called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. But at the same event, he flubbed the acronym.
“They picked the wrong country, JCPOC,” Trump said. “What a terrible — what a terrible deal.”
Zelensky and Vladimir Putin
While seated next to Zelensky, Trump asked the reporters assembled if they had “a question for President Putin.”
(Biden did much the same thing during his own visit to a NATO summit in 2024.)
Kelly Loeffler and Nicki Minaj
Two days prior, Trump seemed to mix up Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler with pro-Trump musician Nicki Minaj.
“But Jeff is great,” Trump said, referring to Loeffler’s husband, Jeffrey Sprecher. “And he’s married to a person who’s doing a phenomenal job at the SBA, small business — Nicki Minaj who’s so incredible. They call it small business, Nicki.”
Two minutes later, Trump again introduced Minaj, but intentionally that time.
Calling Elon Musk ‘Leon’
“We have communication equipment up there that’s nobody’s ever seen before. It’s the highest level and, uh, including Starlink,” Trump said in remarks at a tour of the newly refurbished aircraft being used as Air Force One in June.
“My friend Leon — my friend Elon is gonna be very happy.”
Losing track of Curt Cignetti
During a May event celebrating the Indiana University football national championship, Trump asked where head coach Curt Cignetti was.
Cignetti had been standing right next to him the whole time, and Trump had just looked in his direction.
Wrongly blaming Obama for the Afghanistan withdrawal
Trump seemed to mix up Obama and Biden, who actually oversaw the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“They lost 13 people leaving an airport — Obama,” Trump said in May. “Thirteen very good people that I got to know their families.”
Iran and Taiwan
A reporter asked Trump in May about how Chinese President Xi Jinping “said that there was a risk of conflict with the US over Taiwan. What’s your response to that?”
Trump responded as if the question were about Iran, saying: “I don’t think there’s a conflict, other than we don’t need their — their strait.”
Iran and Ukraine
Trump briefly said in April that Ukraine had already lost its war. But it soon became clear he was actually talking about Iran (because he used a talking point he often used for Iran).
“I think Ukraine, militarily they’re defeated, OK?” Trump said. “You wouldn’t know that by reading the fake news. But militarily, look, their Navy — so, they had 159 ships.”
Kellyanne Conway and Karoline Leavitt
During a Women’s History Month event in April, Trump seemed to mix up two women who have served him in prominent roles.
“And of course, Kellyanne Conway,” Trump said while introducing those assembled. “Has anyone ever heard of her? She’s fantastic. She’s in there fighting. She’s a — Kellyanne. A man, a friend of mine, said, you know, that Kellyanne, I admire the way she goes in and she screams at those people. She’s got us — meaning the media.”
Conway now works as a strategist, not directly for the administration, and her public role doesn’t generally entail going into a room and jousting with the media. The does describe press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s role, however.
Mixing up Greenland and Iceland, repeatedly
During a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump repeatedly mixed up Greenland with Iceland.
“I’m helping Europe, I’m helping NATO, and until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me,” Trump said.
“They’re not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you,” Trump added. “Our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland’s already cost us a lot of money.”
Lots of people have mixed up Greenland and Iceland, of course. But relatively few of them have caused international incidents by making acquiring Greenland a key part of their political agenda.
South Africa and South America
During a November speech in Miami, Trump described it as “a haven for those fleeing communist tyranny in South Africa,” rather than South America.
Trump then tried to right the ship.
“I mean, if you take a look at what’s going on in parts of South Africa — look at South Africa, what’s going on. Look at South America, what’s going on,” Trump said. “You know, I’m not going to — we have a G20 meeting in South Africa. South Africa shouldn’t even be in the Gs anymore, because what’s happened there is bad.”
Armenia and Albania
Trump has repeatedly exaggerated his role in ending wars around the globe. But last year he seemed to forget which countries he had supposedly brought peace to — twice.
“You saw the Aber-baijan,” Trump said on a radio show in August, referring to Azerbaijan. “That was a big one, going on for 34, 35 years with, uh, Albania.”
“I solved wars that were unsolvable,” Trump claimed in September on Fox News. “Azerbaijan and Albania, it was going on for many, many years, I had the prime ministers and presidents in my office.”
In fact, the conflict involved Azerbaijan and Armenia, not Albania. The mix-up became the butt of jokes at a European summit in October.
(Again, many people probably mix up Albania and Armenia. But few of them do so while bragging about bringing lasting peace to one of them.)
Alaska and Russia
Ahead of a high-stakes summit with Putin, Trump twice said in August that he was going to meet the Russian president in Russia — instead of the actual location of the summit, Alaska.
“I’m gonna see Putin,” Trump said. “I’m going to Russia on Friday.”
He added: “It’s gonna be a big thing. We’re going to Russia. That’s going to be a big deal.”
Alaska hasn’t been part of Russia since the 1860s.
