Donald Trump backtracked a bit on his hostile rhetoric toward Iran: when he said they "made a big mistake” he more meant they shot down the drone “by mistake.” He then baffled the press saying at least no one was “in the drone.”

While Trump might have simply been emphasizing that no one was actually killed in the Thursday downing of an American surveillance drone near Iran, his word choice left more than a few people in between puzzled expressions and face-palms.

“Fortunately that drone was unarmed it was… there was no man in it. It was over international waters [...], but we didn’t have a man or woman in the drone, we had nobody in the drone.”

A number of journalists and people on Twitter were quick to mock the president for making sure to specify that no one was physically piloting the vehicle... which is unmanned by definition.

Trump, about the shot down US drone, says: There was no man or woman in the unmanned drone. What is his IQ again? — Russian Market (@russian_market) June 20, 2019

Thank God he cleared up that there was "no man or woman" in the DRONE, here I have been sending Thoughts and Prayers for the family of the pilot. — John W. (@jpweeb) June 20, 2019

If that wasn’t weird enough for one press conference, Trump also repeatedly stated that the drone might have been shot down “by mistake.”

#BreakingNews:Trump doesn't want to go to war. "Maybe (#Iran) downing of the (#US) drone was unintentional". — Elijah J. Magnier (@ejmalrai) June 20, 2019

This is not exactly what most people had in mind when Trump tweeted earlier that Iran had made “a big mistake” in shooting it down, and for many seemed to indicate that Trump is not quite ready to start banging the war drums quite yet. One can only imagine how unhappy John Bolton was to hear that.

Also Trump on drone downing: “I find it hard to believe it was intentional.” pic.twitter.com/HXwLKvt5mQ — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) June 20, 2019

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