It seems news coverage of Donald Trump has fully transitioned from otherwise politically-minded pieces of reporting (hoping to keep in line with presidents past) to increasingly crazier catalogs of his many gaffes. Just today, reports indicate his decision to nominate Christopher Wray as the new FBI director wasn’t known by his own White House staff until Trump tweeted it this morning. And with various intelligence chiefs delivering their congressional testimony the day before former FBI head James Comey is scheduled to do the same, moments like these may become even more ridiculous.
Like when the president, while delivering prepared remarks detailing his administration’s “Infrastructure Week” plans on the Ohio River in Cincinnati, interrupted himself mid-speech. Not because he wanted to add one of his characteristic, boisterous flourishes — an addition he frequently made as a presidential candidate and nominee. Rather, Trump stopped mid-sentence because he was distracted by a barge located directly behind on the river, across from where he was speaking. “We’re going to restore America’s industrial might, and I look here and… something,” he said before turning his back on the audience. “Those barges, they’ve been waiting for us to say hello. The captain says, ‘Please wave.’ Hello captain!”
The bit generated a chuckle among the audience. Reporters, pundits and Twitter trolls monitoring the speech elsewhere were also amused.
Trump gets distracted mid-sentence by a barge on the river, says the captain wants him to wave. "Hello, Captain," he says, waving.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 7, 2017
Trump: We are going to do many, many tremendous thi—
[Cap'n Crunch materializes on a barge in the river]
Trump: https://t.co/qBx0iX2fMP— dontforgetmac (@dontforgetmac) June 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/EvanMcS/status/872506292690092042
https://twitter.com/CillizzaCNN/status/872506206178422785
"My friend the barge man, okay, he's on the boat." /mimes steering "He says all the barge men all love Trump." https://t.co/oAjLDocpNX
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) June 7, 2017
If there is video of Trump saying hello to the barge, please someone juxtapose it with Honk Honk Goes the Truck
— MJ Knefel (@mollyknefel) June 7, 2017
As of this writing, no heroes have stepped forward to make Molly’s request a reality by combining Anthony Atamanuik’s brilliant “truck” monologue from The President Show with the above barge video. Luckily for her, myself and countless other President Show fans, the comedian took notice on Twitter and spread the word by retweeting his fans.
https://twitter.com/JoeBerkowitz/status/872511309924909056
Is this guy actually watching Trump speak or is it @TonyAtamanuik taping tomorrow night's show? https://t.co/yshxHFMDMh
— caroline mccarthy 🦝 (@caro) June 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/JoshRaby/status/872511954413375488