Another day, another ‘what on earth did the president of America just say!!??' His utter incompetence barely shocks anymore, but it never stops seeming preposterous.
Speaking at a White House press briefing last night, Donald Trump inaccurately claimed that the ‘great pandemic of 1917’, referring to the Spanish Flu, ‘probably ended the Second World War’…. Hmm, where do we start?
First of all, the Second World War didn’t start until two decades later, in 1939. Also, the Spanish Flu pandemic didn’t start until 1918.
‘The closest thing is in 1917, they say, the great pandemic,’ he told reporters.
‘It certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people, probably ended the Second World War,’ he added.
It baffles that a man in the most powerful job in the world can repeatedly cite so many inaccuracies, half-truths and outright lies.
He’s right that the Spanish Flu pandemic killed millions of people, but this was between 1918 – 1920, beginning the year the First World War ended. It infected an estimated 500 million people – about a third of the world's population at the time – in four successive waves.
The Second World War did not break out until Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. Britain and France declared war two days later, sparking a conflict that would last six years.
It baffles that a man in the most powerful job in the world can repeatedly cite so many inaccuracies, half-truths and outright lies; perhaps his team is made up of 'yes men' too fearful for their jobs to fact check his notes before he speaks. In many cases, he stubbornly refuses to acknowledge reality, which is not only bewildering, it's dangerous; his failures have already proved catastrophic when it comes to America's handling of the pandemic.
Many took to Twitter to laugh at this latest blunder. George Takei wrote: ‘The president thinks the Spanish Flu probably ended World War Two (!) because “all the soldiers were sick.” The atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki fell 75 years ago yesterday, bringing a long and devastating war to a shattering, violent end. Remember history. Don’t distort it.’
Rep Eric Swalwell tweeted: ‘The Second World War ended in 1945. It’s cruel for @DonaldJTrumpJr and family to let @realDonaldTrump stand out there like this.’
White House officials said that the president misspoke and had, in fact, been referring to the First World War.
It’s the latest in a long list of Trumpian errors: just last week he pronounced Thailand ‘Thighland’ when delivering a speech at Whirlpool factory in Ohio. A recent Axios interview with Australian journalist Jonathan Swan was compared to the political sitcom The Thick Of It for its absurdity. And let’s not forget the time he suggested injecting disinfectant as treatment for coronavirus. (Actually, let’s).
Let’s hope his latest wave of ludicrous behaviour will inspire Americans to vote him out of the Oval Office once and for all come the US elections November.
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