Sign up to get Today’s Best Articles in your inbox
Join 350,000+ subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of
The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Donald Trump is claiming that a slip of the tongue was to blame for his controversial denial of Russian interference in the 2016 US election - and he certainly has a history of muddling his words.
The US president has faced a barrage of criticism over his comments following a summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday, but insisted yesterday that he had “misspoken”.
Reading from a script, Trump explained: “The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t, or why it wouldn’t be Russia [interfering],’” instead of “why it would”, Trump said. “So you can put that in,” he added.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Here are five other examples of the US leader’s gift of the gab:
On ‘7/11’
While campaigning for the Republican nomination, Trump appeared to confuse the 11 September 2001 attack on US soil with American convenience store chain 7-Eleven.
On the campaign trail in Buffalo, New York, he said: “It’s very close to my heart because I was down there, and I watched our police and our firemen down at 7/11, down at the World Trade Center right after it came down, and I saw the greatest people I’ve ever seen in action.”
Sign up to get Today’s Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the day’s biggest news and analysis – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Unfortunately for him, Trump didn’t appear to realise his mistake, but those watching were quick to pick up on it.
On arming teachers
Following the Florida school shooting earlier this year, Trump met survivors of the massacre and told them, in front of reporters, that he was considering a proposal to arm teachers.
“If you had a teacher that was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack quickly,” he said.
Trump later denied making the comment and hit out at media coverage of the incident.
He tweeted: “I never said ‘give teachers guns’ like was stated on Fake News @CNN and @NBC. What I said was to look at the possibility of giving ‘concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience – only the best. 20% of teachers, a lot, would now be able to immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions.”
On the Bible
Trump incorrectly referred to a section of the Bible as “Two Corinthians” instead of “Second Corinthians”, during a visit to an evangelical Christian college in Lynchburg, Virginia.
The mistake “led many to claim that his familiarity with the New Testament book - and the Bible itself - was not as strong as he claimed”, says the Daily Mail.
On big business
A further campaign trail gaffe indicates that numbers may not be Trump’s strong point.
Talking about Atlantic City, where he owns several buildings, he said: “If there is one word to describe Atlantic City, it’s ‘big business’.”
Realising his error, he added: “Or two words - big business.”
In another case of Trump vs. the mainstream media, the president tweeted to his followers about an interview in The Wall Street Journal, claiming he had been misquoted by the newspaper:
However, “in trying to rebuke the quote as a misquote, Trump misquoted the article and his own original statement”, notes The Independent.
The US paper actually reported Trump as saying: “I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un. I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised.”
In response, the paper released audio from the interview “which appeared to demonstrate that Trump’s comments were reported accurately”, adds The Independent.
