Donald Trump used his Independence Day address to suggest American troops “manned the air” and “took over the airports” in 1775 – 128 years before the Wright brothers took to the skies.
The US leader made the blunder during an historic speech, delivered to crowds of supporters at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on Thursday. He drew criticism for his “jingoistic” use of the military, including tanks, for the occasion.
Yet, while Trump avoided his usual rambling, “unscripted” style, to strike a more optimistic and positive tone, it was his references to the American Revolution which immediately raised eyebrows.
Trump said: “In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified army out of the revolutionary forces encamped around Boston and New York … The Continental Army suffered a 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, 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.”
Observers were quick to correct Trump. The Wright brothers, whom Trump referred to earlier in his speech, are credited with the world’s first flight in North Carolina in 1903.
Trump also committed to conquering Mars. He vowed: “Very soon, we will plant the American flag on Mars”.
In addition to his references to US wars and Mars, Trump cited as great Americans both Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, African-Americans who campaigned for the abolition of slavery more than 100 years ago.
But that praise risked criticism as Trump’s administration in May decided to keep Tubman’s image off the $20 bill.
And Trump previously raised doubts about his knowledge of Douglass by speaking of the former slave in the present tense as ”somebody who’s done an amazing job”.
Opposition Democrats said Trump’s speech and the military parade represented a waste of money.
Pete Buttigieg, one of the Democrats running for the party’s nomination for next year’s election, said: “this business of diverting money and military assets to use them as a kind of prop, to prop up a presidential ego, is not reflecting well on our country”.
Trump’s speech, the first on 4 July by a sitting US president since Harry S Truman in 1951, was marred by poor weather and a bulletproof screen shielding his podium was splattered with rain.