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Salute to America address · 2019-07-04

Independence Day: Trump Says Revolutionary Troops Took Over Airports

Washington, D.C.

About this speech

During a Fourth of July speech celebrating American military history, Trump spoke about Revolutionary War forces taking over airports, which did not exist in the eighteenth century.

What stands out in this speech

Why it matters: The anachronism was especially striking in a prepared national address devoted to American history. Trump later attributed the mistake to a teleprompter problem.

An eighteenth-century airport?
“It took over the airports”

The Continental Army fought during the Revolutionary War, more than a century before powered flight.

Transcript location: About 39 minutes

The error in context
“It did everything it had to do”

The line immediately followed the airport remark, during a passage describing the Revolutionary War.

Transcript location: About 39 minutes

Quoted excerpts are brief selections from the linked source transcript; explanations are editorial analysis, not quotations.

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