Trump blames 'airports' gaffe on teleprompter

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Media captionTrump claims army ‘took over airports’ in 1775

US President Donald Trump has blamed a teleprompter going “kaput” for a glaring anachronism in his Fourth of July speech.

He told crowds on Independence Day the Continental Army “took over the airports” from the British during the American Revolutionary War in 1775.

Explaining away the slip-up on Friday, Mr Trump also said it was hard to read the teleprompter in the rain.

He hosted a military parade at the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday.

During his “Salute to America” speech, he was talking about the year 1775 when he said: “Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do.”

Critics pointed out the revolutionaries could not have seized airports more than a century before the first powered flight – credited to the Wright brothers in 1903 – took off.

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Outside the White House on Friday, Mr Trump said: “I guess the rain knocked out the teleprompter.

“I knew the speech very well so I was able to do it 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.”

The president spoke to reporters as he departed with First Lady Melania Trump for the weekend to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Mr Trump said the military parade he hosted on Thursday was a “fantastic night” and forecast a rise in US military recruitment.

Before winning the White House, Mr Trump used to mock ex-President Barack Obama for relying on an autocue.

Twitter users were quick to poke fun at Mr Trump for the error, with many using the hashtag #RevolutionaryWarAirports.

source: bbc.com