Trump is attacking Biden’s verbal slip-up -- but here are 10 of his own embarrassing gaffes

Former Vice President Joe Biden has a long history of being gaffe-prone, and President Donald Trump is using Biden’s gaffes to claim that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is unfit to be president. He, along with his friends at Fox News, have recently seized on Biden’s relatively minor slip-up of referring to “120 million” COVID-19 deaths when he meant “120 thousand.” But Trump has had plenty of gaffes of his own, all of which demonstrate that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Here are ten of Trump’s most embarrassing gaffes.

1. Trump confused 9/11 with the convenience store ‘7/11’

During his 2016 campaign, Trump confused the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with the convenience store chain 7/11. Instead of describing al-Qaeda’s attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as 9/11, then-candidate Trump referred to them as “7/11.”

At a rally in Buffalo, New York on April 18, 2016, Trump told the crowd, “I wrote this out, and it’s very close to my heart. Because I was down there, and I watched our police and our firemen down at 7/11 — down at the World Trade Center right after it came down. And I saw the greatest people I’ve ever seen in action. I saw the bravest people I’ve ever seen.”

2. Trump confused Dayton and Toledo after a mass shooting in Ohio

On August 4, 2019, 24-year-old Connor Stephens Betts carried out a deadly mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio. And when Trump discussed the tragedy during a speech at the White House that week, he confused Dayton with another city in Ohio: Toledo.

Trump said, “May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo; may God protect them. May God protect all of those, from Texas to Ohio. May God bless the victims and their families. May God bless America.”

Trump’s error was baffling at a traumatic time for the country.

3. Trump demands investigation of the ‘oranges’ of Robert Mueller’s probe

In April 2019 — during a meeting with Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization —  Trump answered questions from reporters and discussed former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Russia investigation. And more than once, Trump struggled to use the word “origins” and demanded an investigation of the “oranges” of Mueller’s probe.

Trump told reporters, “I hope they now go and take a look at the oranges, the oranges of the investigation, the beginnings of that investigation.”

The president also complained, “The Mueller Report, I wished, covered the oranges — how it started, the beginnings of the investigation, how it started. It didn’t cover that, and for some reason, none of that was discussed.”

 4. Trump claimed there would be ‘one million eight hundred and seventy thousand million tests’ for coronavirus

At a press conference in April, Trump seriously inflated the amount of testing for coronavirus that was taking place in the United States — where, he told reporters, Americans were getting “one million eight hundred and seventy thousand million tests.”

5. Trump said the US would have ‘no cases’ of COVID-19 ‘if we didn’t do testing’

During a Fox News town hall event with Sean Hannity this week, Trump attributed coronavirus infections to testing. The president told Hannity and audience members, “If we didn’t do testing, we’d have no cases.”

6. Trump praised the US Air Force —  of 1775

During a Fourth of July speech last year, Trump praised the actions that American forces took in 1775 and mentioned fighting by air — which, of course, would have been impossible because aviation had yet to be invented and there was no U.S. Air Force. Trump told the crowd, “In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified army…. Our army manned the air…. It took over the airports.”

The U.S. Armed Forces did not start to “man the air” until 1907. For 40 years, the United States’ aerial fighters were part of the U.S. Army, but in 1947, the United States Air Force was established as a separate branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.

7. Trump saluted those who ‘sacrifice’ for the ‘furniture’ of their children

At a “values voters” event on October 13, 2017, Trump praised Americans who “sacrifice every day for the furniture, future of their children.” That time, Trump corrected his gaffe, as he mentioned the “future” of children rather after mentioning their “furniture.”

8. Trump confused John Bolton and Michael Bolton

On October 23, 2018, Trump discussed foreign policy with reporters and told then, “Mike Bolton, as you know, is in Russia.” Trump was obviously referring to John Bolton, his national security adviser at the time. Instead, he mentioned the name of a famous adult contemporary pop star.

9. Trump referred to his vice president as ‘Mike Pounds’

On September 12, 2019, Trump seemed to be referring to Vice President Mike Pence when he mentioned “Mike Pounds.”

10. Trump referenced Americans of ‘all walks of lice’

In December 2019, “The Daily Show” assembled a collection of Trump gaffes. In one of them, the president is heard mentioning “Americans of all walks of lice” — not life, lice —  who “rose up.”