July 5 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday said he mistakenly spoke about airports being in use during the American Revolution because the teleprompter displaying his July Fourth speech broke.
Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, the president said the device “went kaput” during the rainy weather.
“And that’s not a good feeling. Standing in front of millions and millions of people on television … and I guess the rain knocked out the teleprompter,” he said. “I knew the speech very well, so I was able to do without a teleprompter but the teleprompter did go out.
“And it was actually hard to look at anyway, because there was rain all over it.”
Trump faced criticism Thursday after referencing airports during a speech about the American Revolution in the 1770s. The first airplane flight didn’t take place until 1903, and airports were a 20th century invention.
“The Continental Army suffered the bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware, and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown,” Trump said during his Independence Day speech from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
“Our Army manned the air [inaudible], it rammed the ramparts. It took over the airports. It did everything it had to do,” he added.
