President Trump‘s speech during his Salute to America event was quite a doozy. A full analysis of his poor reading skills will be done at some point on DeadState, but for now let’s talk about how he, or his speechwriter, is apparently under the impression that airports existed in the 18th Century.

While reading his speech from the teleprompter, Trump gave an interesting version of Revolutionary War history.

“In June of 1775 the Continental Congress created a unified Army out of the Revolutionary Forces encamped around Boston and New York, and named after the great George Washington, commander in chief.”

So far so good.

“The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis at Yorktown.”

Well said.

“Our Army manned the [unintelligible], it rammed the ramparts, it took over airports, it did everything it had to do and at Ft. McHenry under the rocket’s red glare had nothing but victory. When dawn came, the star-spangled banner waved defiant.”

What?

See for yourself:

Did he say the army took over the AIRPORTS during the Revolutionary War? I rewound and play it twice. #TrumpParade pic.twitter.com/DtkObSgk3q — Terri2uus 🇺🇸🇩🇪🇮🇹 (@terri2uus) July 4, 2019

Most people with a formal education would agree that there were no airports in 1775.

It’s possible that Trump misread something, or lost his place in the teleprompter and misspoke. Who knows. Either way, Twitter was baffled.

What the fuck is he talking about? Cornwallis of Yorktown and Fort McHenry was during the War of 1812. Which airports did they take over? — 🌊 Paul of America 🌊 (@libdumbass) July 4, 2019

But….uhhh…..

He doesn’t say Yorktown properly. That was 1781.

Fort McHenry, which he ALSO doesn’t say properly, was attacked in 1814.

And yeah, there’s the AIRPORT thing. Huh? — 🎃Atheist Husker🎃 (@atheisthusker) July 5, 2019

We built airports before flight? — US SpaceForce (@USSSpaceForce) July 4, 2019

Just bi planes back then…We didn’t get Tomcats until the Civil War pic.twitter.com/NLBwMqe9uL — Chief Chris (@ChrisPizza4) July 5, 2019

I swear, I think at this point, his speech writers are just fucking with him. Writer 1: Do you honestly think he knows there weren’t airports back then? Writer 2: No way. Throw it in there he’ll say it. Snickering ensues. — 🐲☠️HC SVNT DRACONES☠️🐲 (@DraconesHc) July 5, 2019

The army also confiscated their laptops, cellphones & Tesla’s. — Al (@almichigan77) July 5, 2019

Watch his full speech below:

Update: According to CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, Trump said his flub was due to a teleprompter issue:

"Actually right in the middle of that sentence, it went out, and that's not a good feeling when you're standing in front of millions and millions of people on television." — Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 5, 2019

Featured image via screen grab