Past hoax · Filed Oct 16, 2026
Trump Killed Japanese Koi Fish Hoax
Trump killed the koi fish he was feeding with the Japanese prime minister.
The claim
Trump killed the koi fish he was feeding with the Japanese prime minister.
What it was
He dumped the rest of the box in, the way the prime minister had just done. The fish were not killed. The clip started after Abe.
Timeline
Nov 6, 2017
In Tokyo, Shinzo Abe dumps the rest of a box of koi food into the pond. Trump does the same thing after him.
The clip
A short version starts after Abe. It looks as if Trump dumped the box in ignorance and killed the fish.
The full tape
The fish are not killed. He copied the prime minister.
The pond
The koi are filmed alive after the feeding. The cropped clip still starts after Abe has already emptied his box.
What aired
In November 2017, during a photo opportunity feeding koi with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump tipped the rest of a box of food into the pond. A short clip made it look as if he had ignorantly dumped the box and killed the fish. The clip ran as a metaphor for the man.
The record
Abe had just emptied his own box the same way. Trump copied the host, which is what a guest is supposed to do. The fish were not killed. They were fed, clumsily, in a ritual the prime minister had started. The full video shows the order of operations. The short video starts after Abe.
Left out
Left out was the previous ten seconds. That is the whole hoax. A man following an example looks like a man committing a blunder if you delete the example. Also left out was the boring fact that koi are fed by the box at these events. The pond was not a delicate glass bowl he had just poisoned.
Why it stuck
It stuck because it was funny and it was mean in a way that felt observational. You did not need to hate him to laugh. The laugh did not require the fish to be dead. When someone pointed out Abe, the joke was already told, and a corrected joke is never as good.