Trump blamed his confusing reference to airports being seized during the Revolutionary War on a teleprompter failure

Evan Vucci/AP Photo

President Donald Trump

• President Donald Trump attributed his confusing and ahistorical reference to soldiers seizing airports during the Revolutionary War on a weather-induced teleprompter failure.
• Washington, DC experienced heavy rainfall and poor visibility during Trump's 4th of July "Salute to America" celebration on National Mall. Trump made the airport-related gaffe during his speech to the crowd.
• "Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry," Trump said.
• When asked about the gaffe, Trump said that the heavy rains "knocked out" his teleprompter in the middle of that sentence, adding, "that's not a good feeling when you are standing in front of millions and millions of people on television."
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President Donald Trump attributed his confusing and ahistorical reference to soldiers seizing airports during the Revolutionary War on a weather-induced teleprompter failure.

Washington, DC experienced heavy rainfall and poor visibility during Trump's 4th of July "Salute to America"celebration on National Mall. Trump made the airport-related gaffe during his speech to the crowd.

"Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets' red glare, it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant," Trump said in the speech.

When asked on Friday about the gaffe, Trump said the poor weather conditions caused his teleprompter to malfunction.

"The teleprompter went out, right in the middle of that sentence it just went out, it went kaput, and that's not a good feeling when you are standing in front of millions and millions of people on television," Trump said while speaking to reporters outside the White House.

He added: "The rain knocked out the teleprompter. But no, it's not that. I knew the speech very well. I was able to do it without a teleprompter. But the teleprompter did go out. It was actually hard to look at anyway because it was rain all over it."

Read more: The internet blew up with hilarious #RevolutionaryWarAirportStories jokes after Trump's puzzling reference to US soldiers seizing airports

Neither airplanes nor airports existed in America until the early 20th century when the Wright brothers first took flight in 1903, and the world's first airport was established in College Park, Maryland in 1909, well over a century after the revolutionaries won independence from Britian.

From Trump's comments, it was still unclear whether the airport mistake was written into the speech, or whether the speech as written mentioned seaports instead of airports and Trump simply misspoke.

Regardless, Trump didn't seem to be fazed by the gaffe and viewed the event as a success - even suggesting that it could bolster military recruitment.

"Despite the rain, that was just a fantastic evening... and it was really a recruitment situation," he said. "A lot of people are going to be joining our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard."

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