President Donald Trump.Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty
When PresidentDonald Trumpstood before a group of 9/11 responders on Monday andspoke of being at ground zero, it wasn’t the first time he had told such a story.
It was, however, the first timeit sparked a viral meme— in this case, tweets that jokingly inserted Trump into various historical happenings of which he was most definitely not a part.
The president, 73, prompted the backlash at the White House as he signed a bill into law reauthorizing health care funding and other compensation for Sept. 11, 2001, responders, victims and their families.
“Many of those affected were firefighters, police officers and other first responders,” he told the crowd, which included more than 60 responders and their families. “And I was down there also, but I’m not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you.”
It’s not the first time Trump has inserted himself into the tragic day’s events, despite skepticism about the true scope of his involvement.
Richard Alles, a retired New York Fire Department deputy chief who attended Monday’s event, told theNew York Timeshe “never witnessed” Trump at ground zero in the many months he spent there.
President Donald Trump (center) signs a bill reauthorizing money for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty
“He was a private citizen at the time. I don’t know what kind of role he could have possibly played,” Alles said.
“Being down there surveying the damage is also not the same as standing on that pile of debris, as first responders who got sick did, day after day,”New York TimesWhite House reporter Maggie Habermanwrote on Twitter. “I have no memory of Trump talking about first responders or victims’ relatives; if it happened, I hope someone can show when it was.”
Trump’s statement prompted a viral stream of tweets, all under the hashtag #LostTrumpHistory. (White House spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment.)
The trend launched thanks touser @JoJoFromJerz, who jokingly revealed the little-known “fact” that Trump was actually the first aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
Trump critics onlinehad a field dayinserting him into various historical events, such as the moon landing, World War II and even the 1986 World Series.
“He stormed the beaches of Normandy and took out three German bunkers with a golf club,” one user wrote, sharing a 2006 photo of Trump climbing to the green at Pebble Beach with a McDonald’s soda photoshopped in.
Another Photoshopped him into Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, joking, “Trump hosted the Last Supper & made Jesus pay for it.”
The president was even photoshopped into a Civil War painting along with the joke, “The One where Trump Saved the Day at the Bowling Green Massacre.”
“Bowling Green Massacre” was a dig at Kellyanne, whomentioned the made-up incidentin multiple interviews in 2017.
Her husband retweeted many of the tweets and even contributed a #LostTrumpHistory of his own,writing, “In 2019, astronomer Donald Trump discovered that the Moon was a part of Mars.”
George Conway has become an ever-more-vocal Trump detractor, assailing his moral character and mental health.
“Has America ever witnessed a bigger pathological liar?” he tweeted this week. “Virtually every day, often multiple times a day, easily disprovable lies. And utterly pointless ones. It’s a sickness.”
source: people.com
