During his first visit to California as president, on Tuesday Donald Trump visited the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, where he addressed United States Marine troops. As he is wont to do, the president later tweeted of his visit that evening. “It was my great honor to deliver a message at the Marine Core Air Station Miramar to our GREAT U.S. Military, straight from the heart of the American People,” Trump wrote. “We support you, we thank you, we love you – and we will always have your back!”
Yes, the President of the United States of America legitimately thought the Marine Corps were called the “Marine Core.” He eventually deleted his tweet and corrected the mistake, but screenshots captured the moment for posterity.
This is not Trump’s first — nor, likely will it be his last — utter failure when it comes to a basic understanding of the English language, however this one carries weight. Given Trump’s fervent obsession with black athletes taking a knee during the national anthem and his claim that it disrespects the flag and our troops, not being able to correctly identify a major a branch of the United States Armed Forces is glaring, to say the least.
As such, people were deservedly quick to pile on the president on Twitter:
It’s baffling that the president of the United States would tweet Marine Core instead of Marine Corps but that’s like the 20th most shocking thing that’s happened today.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) March 14, 2018
The worst thing about Trump writing "Marine Core" isn't that he made a stupid spelling mistake in a jingoistic tweet. It's that I'm 99% sure that's just how he thought it was spelled.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) March 14, 2018
Oh my God in heaven, the FW: FW: FW: FW: FW: emails I’d be getting from my relatives if any Democrat had tweeted “Marine Core.”
— DaveHolmes.bsky.social (@DaveHolmes) March 14, 2018
https://twitter.com/MorganForMI/status/973723250546151424
So I spend months developing the Marine Core ab workout … and Trump just tweets it out???
— David Frum (@davidfrum) March 14, 2018
https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/973713185776848896
https://twitter.com/Carter_PE/status/973710247645892609
If a Democratic president wrote "Marine Core" it would literally be the central Republican campaign theme. Conservatives would be talking about it 40 years later, like Jimmy Carter "inordinate fear of communism" stories. https://t.co/10mQ6pL9f3
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) March 14, 2018
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/973713701114208256
Meanwhile, during his actual speech to the troops, Trump floated the idea of a new “Space Force” branch of the military, so this barely cracks the top two ridiculous thing the president did that day.