This morning, the president of the United States addressed the graduating class at the Annapolis Naval Academy and quickly grew bored with his prepared script, instead deciding to veer off into patently false boasts and utter gibberish, as he is wont to do.
After rambling on through his usual points about how strong and tremendous and excellent our military that can’t seem to stop crashing its vehicles is, Trump bragged that he had just gotten the troops a pay raise, the biggest pay raise for the first time in ten years – which would have been big news if any of it had been true, as noted by Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale:
Trump lies: "We just got you a big pay raise. First time in 10 years. We got you a big pay increase. First time in OVER 10 years."
Troops have received pay increases every year. This raise is not as big as the one eight years ago under Obama.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 25, 2018
In fact, Trump’s White House asked for a smaller pay raise than the one Congress actually gave them, but minor details like “facts” and “numbers” never really posed much of a problem for Trump before.
Then Trump started ab-libbing, producing a number of ridiculous quotes that would be quite funny if anyone but the president of the United States were saying them, like how the United States has always been a ‘maritime nation,’ which is news to the forty or so states which are landlocked and don’t actually have access to the ocean.
Trump: "We are recommitting to this fundamental truth: we are a maritime nation. True. And being a maritime nation, we're surrounded by sea. We must always dominate that sea. We will always dominate the oceans."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 25, 2018
The president then ran out of material, and asked his mind to make a deal and produce something for him to talk about – and all he was able to get was the name of a reality television show:
Trump: "There's another word that's never used, and I'll use it today. It's called TALENT. We have talent, and a lot of other people don't, and a lot of other countries don't."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 25, 2018
Yes, indeed, folks, you heard it here first. America’s Got Talent. But don’t worry – he knows that phrases relating to ships began in the navy:
Trump claims that people he knows in the business world use the phrase "DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP."
"But it's really – you guys started it," he tells the Navy.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 25, 2018
At the very least he didn’t use the speech at the Naval Academy to launch into a xenophobic rant about immigrants and how they’re all vicious gang members, which is all we can really expect from him at this point.
President Trump is delivering the commencement speech at the US Naval Academy, addressing more than 1,000 graduates who will become commissioned officers in the US Navy and Marine Corps https://t.co/VhW18EQbMU
Watch on CNN: https://t.co/UYpqI3w42L pic.twitter.com/FkHrz8WtQS
— CNN (@CNN) May 25, 2018
