The morning after

Really, do I want to look?

It's mostly a litany of retweets of people praising Trump and remarking on the crowd size, along with some pictures.

And this:



Thanks for the reminder.

And this:

Trump's hair is so ridiculous even Dinesh D'Souza had to make it look normal.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

P.S.

Are they pretending it's not raining, or is the (presumed) bullet-proof glass dirty? Surely he'd be under an umbrella if it were raining to protect that ridiculous hair. Or...

According to the reports I'm readaing, His Lardship managed to get through his speech only going 15 minutes overtime and avoiding trashing Democrats.  Pretty good, little man.  But, he did have his moments of ad lib error in the Trump tradition:

Trump, speaking to a massive crowd during a rainstorm in Washington, D.C., spoke of the forces winning various battles against the British [in 1775].

"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,” Trump said while reading the teleprompter in the rain.

"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 rocket's red glare it had nothing but victory,” he continued. “And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant."

  The Hill

It took over the airports? In 1775.

The mistake led to the hashtag #RevolutionaryWarAirportStories trending on Twitter late Thursday night.

And a twofer:

Much, much more here.

Historians ⁠— at least the ones fact-checking the president on Twitter ⁠— were not impressed. One likened the speech to “an angry grandpa reading a fifth grader’s book report on American military history.”

[...]

“On this day, 243 years ago, our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to declare independence and defend our God-given rights.”

As most history undergrads could tell you, this isn’t quite true. The Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776. On July 4, they approved the final text of the declaration. They signed it with their John Hancocks on Aug. 2.

There were inaccuracies like this peppered throughout the speech ⁠— the president still seems to not know exactly who “Douglass, Frederick Douglass, the great Frederick Douglass” is ⁠— but Trump was especially befuddled when he described the creation of the U.S. Army.

[...]

"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 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 [unclear], it [unclear] 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."

[...]

[I]t’s clear the president was having some issues reading the teleprompter, which led to a number of errors. For example, British General Cornwallis was of London; he was defeated at Yorktown. The Continental Army wasn’t named after Washington; it’s possible Trump substituted “named” for a different verb in the text of the speech.

But that doesn’t explain the apparent conflation of two wars fought three decades apart. In the first part, Trump mentions Valley Forge, crossing the Delaware and Yorktown, all of which occurred during the Revolutionary War. Then he says, “And at Fort McHenry ...” and describes the battle in which the national anthem was written. This battle was fought in 1814 during the War of 1812.

  WaPo

Sad. His speech-writers are as ignorant as he is.

Then there’s the claim the Army — in either 1775 or 1814 or some time in between? — “took over the airports.”

[...]

Was it another ad-lib born of too-small teleprompter type? Who knows?

Inspired by the exhibition of French military strength he witnessed while attending Bastille Day in Paris in 2017, the Republican president turned the event into a celebration of the US military.

[...]

Trump's speech to the nation centred on the US's military strength, lavishing extensive praise on each branch of the military, touting the armed forces and their history as the example of strength and unity to which ordinary citizens should aspire to.

"There will be nothing that America cannot do" as long as Americans remain true to their history and "never stop fighting for a better future," said Trump. He also promised to plant the US flag on Mars.

  alJazeera

The US president’s unique interpretation of the declaration of independence was on full display on Thursday when he staged a militaristic, jingoistic and untraditional jamboree at the Lincoln memorial in Washington to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Trump did not fulfil his critics’ worst fears of a politically partisan, campaign-style rally with his “Salute to America” event. Indeed, in a rare plea for unity as he spoke beneath the statue of Abraham Lincoln, he told the crowd: “We are one people chasing one dream and one magnificent destiny. We all share the same heroes, the same home, the same heart, and we are all made by the same almighty God.”

  Guardian

No we don't share the same heroes or the same heart or the same dream.

Trump now has the world’s most fearsome arsenal at his disposal – and he showed it off.

He relished introducing F-22 Raptors and a B-2 stealth bomber that roared loudly over the Washington monument, the reflecting pool and the Lincoln memorial. The rain-soaked crowd whooped, clapped, waved hats in the air and chanted: “USA! USA!”

Sad.

The showman president, speaking behind rain-streaked bulletproof glass screens, grinned widely and declared: “Great country!”

There were several more flypasts in the cloudy sky by the plane known as Air Force One when the president is aboard, as well as army, navy, coast guard and Marine Corps aircraft and, climactically, six Blue Angel F-18s. The controversial event also included two Abrams tanks and two Bradley fighting vehicles.

What? They weren't grounded because of the weather like he claimed as an excuse not to go to Arlington in a drizzle?

In a speech that lasted 47 minutes, Trump laboured over a heroic version of American military history, telling stories not only of the revolutionary war that won independence from Britain but the civil war (“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”) and the second world war. He summoned military leaders to the podium, paid tribute to gold star families and at one point referenced his proposed space force.

The president sailed close to one of his campaign lines when he claimed, “our nation is stronger than it ever was before”, but otherwise swerved past party politics for once.

He'll be anxious to get back to throwing feces then, won't he?

UPDATE:

It's worse than in print.

Also, "Fort McHendry."

Jesus, what a maroon.