UPDATED with Trump addressing airports remark: President Donald Trump took some lumps over Thursday’s remark about Continental Army taking over the airports during the Revolutionary War in 1775. Today he explained what happened.

“Yeah, the teleprompter went out,” POTUS told reporters this morning. “It kept going on. And then, at the end, it just went out. It went kaput. So I could have said — and, 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 of millions of people on television. And, I don’t know what the final count was, but that went all the way back to the Washington Monument. And I guess the rain knocked out the teleprompter.”‘

Well, that settles that.

Happily, he did not go on to suggest that the same thing happened to President Lincoln as he delivered the Gettysburg Address.

PREVIOUSLY, 8:15 a.m.: The President told reporters today as he was about to board Air Force One that yesterday’s rain interfered with his Salute to America teleprompter and that he occasionally had to wing the speech, seeming to suggest that the “airport” comment might have been one of those moments. But then he insisted that he knew the speech so well that he didn’t need the teleprompter.

Rain or no, critics of Donald Trump are in no holiday mood to cut the president any slack whatsoever after his attention-grabbing Salute To America yesterday – one pundit today compared him to an angry grandpa reading his grandson’s fifth-grade history report – but the easiest gaffe to pick on was Trump’s assertion that the Continental Army of 1775 “manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports.”

Faster than you can say, “Must I check my musket?”, social media responded with jibes and swipes at Trump’s bizarre mangling of history. There were a few other foul-ups – British Gen. Charles Cornwallis was not of Yorktown but rather lost there – but it was the image of air traffic controllers in tricorn hats that proved most irresistible to the wiseacres.

Here’s a sampling:

Dear @realDonaldTrump, It just occurred to me that you & my great, great, great grandpappy were on the same flight in 1812. The family stories of the emergency landing during the red flare are absolutely riveting. Just curious, what time do you start sundowning? xoBette #BeBette — Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) July 5, 2019

Apparently we took La Guardia Airport from the Brits in 1776 and have been trying to give it back for 243 years. — George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 5, 2019

Adding “Airports” to the text of the TelePrompTer speech on War of 1812? Well played Deep State. Well played. #TrumpParade #Worst4thEver https://t.co/47RqeSZ2Ws — Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) July 5, 2019

This is wonderfully hilarious! My laugh for the morning. : ) https://t.co/RKmfYT9siE — Betty Buckley (@BettyBuckley) July 5, 2019

Francis Scott Key calls the airline and asks, "Oh, say. Can you see if there's an earlier flight?"#RevolutionaryWarAirports #RevolutionaryWarAirportStories — Scott Eric Alt (@ScottEricAlt) July 5, 2019

Actual footage of the U.S. Army storming the airports during the War of 1812: pic.twitter.com/z4CvvgjvzP — Derek Litvak (@TheTattooedGrad) July 5, 2019

Y’all, Y’ALL, he said our army took over the airports during the…. Wait for it….. Revolutionary War 😐pic.twitter.com/vt6A8A9mh4 — Danny Ocean (@The_UnSilent_) July 5, 2019

TRUMP IS LYING!!!! JET FUEL CANT MELT STEEL MUSKETS!!! THE 1776 ATTACK ON AIRPORTS WAS AN INSIDE JOB!!!#airports — The Levine Machine (@Eitanthegoalie) July 5, 2019

Has this been doctored ? If not, what more evidence do we need to conclude that President Trump is out of his tiny mind ? In 1776 'our army manned the air, it ran the ramparts, it took over the airports…' And now, here's Ivanka to announce she'll be running in 2024 https://t.co/9hBNhkVcqF — John Cleese (@JohnCleese) July 5, 2019

Not one Trump supporter has defended or explained the airport takeovers of both the revolutionary war and the war of 1812. Why? #RevolutionaryWarAirports #TrumpParadeFail — Michelangelo Signorile (@MSignorile) July 5, 2019

George Washington directing the YE Olde Flying Tigers at the battle of Dulles International #RevolutionaryWarAirportStories #RevolutionaryWarAirports pic.twitter.com/MuqOydq8oX — Airship (@AirshipZR1) July 5, 2019

Ivanka discussing maintaining control of the airports w our founding fathers#RevolutionaryWarAirportStories#UninvitedIvanka pic.twitter.com/adrjkjATEI — David Weiss (@WeissyDOT) July 5, 2019

But Trump had at least one big-name supporter, Laura Ingraham: