In addition to an erroneous tweet, President Donald Trump sent several other social media posts on Thursday to commemorate the occasion. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo White House misremembers historical details on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump erred in their efforts to mark Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day on Thursday, misquoting one of the president’s predecessors and misstating the date of the attack on social media.

“National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day – ‘A day that will live in infamy!’ December 7, 1941,” President Trump posted on Twitter Thursday.


But Trump’s quote slightly misstated one of the most famous phrases from World War II.

On Dec. 8, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in an address to a joint session of Congress, called the attack a day earlier by Japanese bombers on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii, “a date which will live in infamy.” Congress declared war on Japan later that day.

The error was repeated by Trump’s director of social media, Dan Scavino Jr., who posted the same misquote with an accompanying image of Trump and the first lady visiting the USS Arizona Memorial in November.

The Scavino post was later taken down.

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A tweet from the first lady also misdated the Japanese attack, saying it occurred in November, not December. She later reposted the same message with the correct date.

Trump sent several other social media posts Thursday to commemorate the occasion. He hosted naval officers and survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack at a ceremony at the White House, where he signed a proclamation marking Dec. 7 as Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

“All American hearts are filled with gratitude for their service, their sacrifice and their presence here today," Trump said.

