President Donald Trump honored veterans who died in America’s wars on Memorial Day at a beautiful and solemn wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
As a firing party fired a traditional 21-gun salute, the Honor Guard stood at attention. Top military brass and White House Cabinet members joined Trump on the steps leading to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, before the ceremony moved to the Memorial Amphitheater for the president’s speech.
It was an unlikely backdrop for a Trump word salad, but he delivered a doozy that has resurfaced on social media. Trump described a fallen soldier as a “Criptolologigic” when paying tribute to Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, and the internet cannot get over it.
For the record, she was a linguist, translator, and U.S. Navy cryptologic technician who tragically died in a suicide bomb attack while she was hunting ISIS cells in Syria.
“What is he rambling about?” asked one in the comments of the resurfaced clip. “JD’s head snapped up on that. Lofl,” wrote another who noticed the reaction from the vice president when Trump stumbled over the tribute.
“He shouldn’t be trying to pronounce big words. He’s not smart enough,” one person said.
“Think he needs a linguist and cryptologist to decipher the goobly gook word vomit he tried to convey!” another added.
In the full clip of his speech, Trump also paid tribute to fallen Vietnam soldier Senior Master Sgt. Elroy Harworth, describing him as a “young, beautiful man from Erhard, Minnesota,” and to Cpl. Ryan McGee of Fredericksburg, an Army Ranger who was mortally wounded in Iraq at age 21.
Earlier in his speech, Trump cited the first Revolutionary soldiers who died at the Battle of Bunker Hill, but suddenly pivoted to politics, using the opportunity to take jabs at the Biden administration.
“Those young men could never have known what their sacrifice would mean to us, but we certainly know what we owe to them. That valor gave us the freest, greatest, and most noble Republic ever to exist on the face of the earth. A republic that I am fixing after a long and hard four years. That was a hard four years we went through,” Trump said, shaking his head in disapproval, before continuing.
“Who would let that happen? People pouring through our borders unchecked,” he told the audience, though he did not explicitly name former President Joe Biden. “People doing things that are indescribable and not for today to discuss.”
However, social media cannot let his gaffe go, and the remarks are pouring in. “They laughed at Biden, and look what they got speaking the same language! Karma!” exclaimed one. “I thought you had to speak English in America. What the f**k was that?”
