Scoot: Does it matter that President Trump doesn’t know history?

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Photo credit Tomohiro Ohsumi / Stringer

The President of the United States delivered a speech on the 4th of July.  That should not have been a controversial moment, but the controversy started prior to the speech by President Trump during the “Salute To America” 4th of July celebration.

Democrats predicted the speech by President Trump would be too political and that it would be wrong for him to use the nation’s birthday for a political rally.  Predicting politicizing the speech before the President gave the speech was a mistake.

But the precedent is set – anything President Donald Trump does is highly controversial and it appears the speech was more an historical rallying cry than it was a politicized speech.  However, there was controversy with the President’s version of history.

Social media was filled with comments about the heavy rain that feel, like this Tweet that read, “In a clear sign of God’s displeasure, it has just started to rain in DC – right before Trump is supposed to give his campaign speech at his event on the National Mall.”
Other Tweets invoked references to God, like this one that read, “More proof that God has a sense of humor and karma is real.”

Using the rain as a sign that God is not pleased with President Trump is, of course, absurd, but during these tense political times it is not surprising.

Many believe it is hypocritical for President Trump to brag about and stand up for the U.S. military since he appears to have used the influence and money of his family and bone spurs to get out of serving during the Vietnam War.  Others argue the criticism is not fair – but in politics that is fair territory.  President Trump could have addressed that in a way to suggest that he is a very different person today, but has chosen to avoid the subject.

In a big faux paus during the speech, President Trump said that the U.S. Army seized airports during the Revolutionary War.  The Revolutionary War ended in 1783 – and the first flight by the Wright Brothers didn’t happen until 120 years later in 1903.  The point is – there were NO airports during the Revolutionary War.

President Trump blamed that historical blunder on the faulty teleprompter and said, “I knew the speech very well so I was able to do it without a teleprompter.”
There really is no excuse for saying that the Army seized the airports during the Revolutionary War because even a “D” student in history class would have known how ridiculous that was.  It would be like saying the “dinosaurs all died because of pesticides!”

President Trump does not know history – but should we care?  I’d like to think that is important – but is it?  The latest jobs report shows there were 224,000 jobs created in June – far surpassing the prediction of 165,000 jobs.