Donald Trump to WWII Veterans: Pearl Harbor Was a “Pretty Wild Scene”
Photo by Pool/GettyThis one may shock you, folks, but it turns out Donald Trump is bad at coming off as intelligent in conversation and speeches. And it further turns out that this extends to his conversations with veterans.
President Trump invited World War II veterans to the Oval Office in memory of the attack on Pearl Harbor. During his presser, with the veterans arrayed stiffly beside him, Trump went off-script for a moment for what he thought would be a touching, spontaneous moment. Here is the fifteen second video. You can decide for yourself how touching it was.
Trump to a 93-year-old Pearl Harbor veteran: “That was a pretty wild scene. You’ll never forget that, right? pic.twitter.com/gMRWVDYkmZ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 7, 2017
“A pretty wild scene.”
You don’t have to keep reading this article if you don’t want to. You can just keep watching that video. The awkwardness just oozes from it. In the fifteen-second clip, there are multiple candidates for most uncomfortable moment, from WWII vet George Blake having to confirm that, yes, he did indeed remember Pearl Harbor, to Trump describing an attack that left over 2,000 Americans dead as “a pretty wild scene,” but our favorite would have to be the moment Trump goes off script. He stops reading the pages on the podium, and just looks around for George. “George? … George?” He asks, like doddering nursing home resident, unsure if it’s a grandchild come to visit him or just the orderly with the medication again.
It would be almost sweet, if it wasn’t humiliating nonsense spewed from the mouth of a man in the midst of creating his own secret police.