One For The History Books: Trump's Colonial 'Airports' Now Part Of White House Transcript

Mary Papenfuss
Updated

President Donald Trump’s gaffe in his Independence Day speech that referred to “airports” during the Revolutionary War took one more step into the history books with its inclusion in the official White House transcript of his remarks.

Trump blamed his goof-up on a teleprompter that he said went on the blink because of rain that fell as he spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Fortunately, he added, “I knew the speech very well, so I was able to do it without the teleprompter.”

Except, of course, he wasn’t able to do it error free. As Trump was talking about the Revolutionary War, he touted Americans who were manning “the air” and taking over “the airports” ― long before the age of manned flight began.

The comments were included in the official White House transcript of the speech issued Friday. The White House has been known to edit Trump’s remarks in the transcripts — but not this time.

Trump also seemed to conflate the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 as he referred to the battle in the latter conflict that spurred Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem.

Here’s how the White House recorded Trump’s comments:

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.

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

Our Army manned the air (inaudible), it rammed the ramparts. It took over the airports. It did everything it had to do. And at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their Star Spangled Banner waved defiant.

Trump also erred in this remarks when he said the American army was “named after” George Washington (it wasn’t) — and that the Yanks defeated Gen. Charles Cornwallis of Yorktown. Cornwallis was from London; he was defeated at Yorktown, Virginia, in the 1781 battle that essentially ended the Revolutionary War.

He also called Fort McHenry (which figured in the War of 1812, not the Revolutionary War) “McHendry,” which the transcript didn’t catch.

His “manned the air” and airport gaffe provided immeasurable joy for Twitter wags who churned out high-flying Revolutionary War memes.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.