People can’t stop cracking up over the former president’s bizarre, bumbling speech.

Speaking outside Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, Donald Trump left everyone confused when he attempted to explain the Battle of Gettysburg, praised (and invented a quote from) Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and generally had no idea what he was talking about.

When his off-the-cuff remarks hit late-night television on Monday, the hosts couldn’t hide their laughter.

“You have to hand it to this guy: On the weekend before his unprecedented criminal trial begins, he somehow manages to overshadow it with this broken-brained interpretation of what happened at Gettysburg during the Civil War,” Jimmy Kimmel quipped.

    • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      Yea, the guy is ignorant and is used to BSing his way through it. His wealth has long sheltered him from being called out on it.

      “look having nuclear…” Moron

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Being a moron is not enough. You also have to suffer from rapidly advancing dementia to be regarded as the literal second coming of Christ by “conservatives”.

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Honestly, that makes perfect sense. Their other darling president was a talentless hack, brainless politician with dementia, so it 100% tracks that they can’t get on their knees fast enough.

        • Billiam@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Their other darling president was a talentless hack, brainless politician entertainer with dementia

          Yeah, I’m not sure the right elected St. Ronnie or Trump because of their political acumen.

          • Optional@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            To be fair, and I say this as no fan of Ronnie Raygun, he seemed relatively normal until the later years. A jerkass right-wing nut in practice, who screwed up a LOT of things and set the stage for later disasters, but otherwise human. Possibly even personally likable. I didn’t cheer when he got shot, like.

            Trump is seven layers of freak criminal mental disease. If Jodie Foster’s Army was active and working today, I’d be dancing on the rooftops.

          • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I’m not sure the right elected St. Ronnie or Trump because of their lack of political acumen.

            Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s exactly why they elected both. Idiots are notoriously easy to manipulate and control.

    • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Yeah, it’s only a gaffe if your base isn’t stupid enough to already believe the brainless bullshit that falls out of your talk hole.

  • Kalkaline @leminal.space
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    3 months ago

    What exactly do people see in Trump? He’s got no idea what happened at Gettysburg, why even bring it up?

    • protist@mander.xyz
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      3 months ago

      He lets people who “believe in him” let go of all guilt, shame, and self-doubt. It doesn’t matter if you’re racist, sexist, or homophobic, it doesn’t matter if you commit crimes, perpetrate injustice, blaspheme, or maliciously harm others, as long as you believe in Trump, he forgives you. It’s intoxicating to some people. He’s like the opposite of Jesus. Some kind of “anti-Jesus.”

      As far as why Trump even brought it up, he’s a narcissist who has never had boundaries or been held accountable for anything. He just says and does whatever he wants in the moment.

      • SwampYankee@mander.xyz
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        3 months ago

        He’s like the opposite of Jesus. Some kind of “anti-Jesus.”

        I wonder if the bible has anything to say about that…

      • kromem@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It doesn’t matter if you’re racist, sexist, or homophobic, it doesn’t matter if you commit crimes, perpetrate injustice, blaspheme, or maliciously harm others, as long as you believe in Trump, he forgives you. It’s intoxicating to some people. He’s like the opposite of Jesus.

        I hate to burst your bubble, but that literally is the canonical conceptualization of Jesus.

        “As long as you accept him into your heart as your lord and savior, all is forgiven” is basically the lifeblood of modern Christianity. It’s why you have people proselytizing to death row inmates to “save them” before execution.

        There’s a lot of other aspects that are antithetical to canonical Jesus, who I don’t recall having golden toilets or being tried for fraud in paying off a porn star to keep quiet about an extramarital affair - but “he forgives everything” is pretty on brand.

        • protist@mander.xyz
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          3 months ago

          Yeah I get that, and could have expounded more. He is just like Jesus in that one way, but he actively encourages bad behavior and is basically the anti-Christ in many other ways

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    DON’T FIGHT UPHILL ME BOYS!

    such a famous quote, delivered with all the gravitas that it warrants

    • EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I took it as him saying the quote he was referencing - Don’t fight uphill - and directing it to his ‘boys’.

      • noride@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        When was the last time you heard someone say ‘me boys’ who wasn’t Scottish or a 16th century pirate?

        • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I think I came across a pirate last year who said it, but it turned out to be someone walking to a costume party.

          • Hazzia@discuss.tchncs.de
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            3 months ago

            I ran into a pirate who said it recently as well. I was transporting a shipment off the coast of Somalia when my ship was come upon by a speedboat full of armed somali men. They boarded quickly and tied me and the rest of the crew to the railings. To the sound of a “thunk, think, thunk” up the plank, the men lined up on either side, guns at the ready. Over the deck comes this massive, 7 foot tall white man with a long, scratchy looking beard, wearing a tricorn cap, a long, raggedy coat, and a parrot upon his shoulder. Looking down, I was able to see the thunking was coming from the walk of his peg leg.

            “Yarrrr, what be the situation me boys?” Said the large man. One of the armed men spoke to him in a language I didn’t understand, though that seemed to be no trouble for the bearded giant. “Aye then, let’s load’er up 'fer we’re sent to dance with Jack Ketch!”

            They stole 5 crates of oranges and then left.

            • yuri@pawb.social
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              3 months ago

              God, for some reason I was fully bought in until you mentioned the pegleg. You could be pirate-shittymorph.

  • anon6789@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I thought I was going crazy thinking he must have held a second rally, because Gettysburg isn’t anywhere near where he was speaking. The place he was at is as close to NYC or almost any part of the Jersey Shore as it was to Gettysburg.

    To just randomly go into a speech about how General Lee isn’t as beloved as he used to be is really out of nowhere and how it could be directed to anyone other than some racist types is beyond me.

    I really hope my state can start to heal itself if we can whomp the Rs again this election. There’s still a rabid base of these supporters though, but they’ve been laying a bit low. I’ve been seeing signs up all over for Mark Houck instead of Trump, so I looked up who this guy was and he twice assaulted a 72-year-old abortion clinic escort.

    Houck was accused of physically assaulting Bruce Love, a 72-year-old clinic escort, in October 2021. Love was attempting to escort two patients exiting the Philadelphia clinic when Houck “forcefully shoved” him to the ground, according to the Justice Department. On a separate occasion, Houck allegedly verbally confronted the escort and shoved him to the ground outside the clinic. Love sustained injuries that required medical attention.

    However, Houck said he spoke outside of abortion clinics each week and sometimes brought his 12-year-old son along. He said he shoved Love after the clinic escort invaded his son’s personal space and yelled at him.

    This is who the Rs are trying to get to push out their long term somewhat moderate current Republican rep.

    Vote 'em out, me boys!

  • BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The quote he made up reeks of lost cause mentality. The idea that Lee lost because his generals didn’t follow his grand wisdom has been around since right after the war. There was a southern journalist who lost a defamation case to a general he claimed didn’t adhere to orders. I think some lost cause circles still bring it up. Despite winning the case the guy was military not pr, and didn’t know how to use the money to repair his reputation from a guy who professionally spreads information (disinformation in this case).

  • Addv4@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Not joking, I saw a couple of excerpts from the speech shortly on here, and thought it was just a meme. Didn’t even realize it was real until the next day when I saw the clip of him saying it. Just originally thought it was just too dumb to say, even for Trump.

  • n0m4n@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Compare “potatoe” to Trump’s speech. This speech needs to be played again and again as a campaign ad gift from Trump.

    • nickiwest@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I am old enough to remember that. My, how times have changed.

      Also, remember the time that Howard Dean tried to stir up some excitement among his campaign supporters and was knocked as “not being presidential”?

      This is truly the Darkest Timeline™.

  • ickplant@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    These are his actual words… or word salad:

    Union was saved by the immortal heroes at Gettysburg. Gettysburg. What an unbelievable battle that was, the battle of Gettysburg. What an unbelievable… I mean, it was so much and so interesting and so vicious and horrible and so beautiful in so many different ways. It represented such a big portion of the success of this country. Gettysburg, wow. I go to Gettysburg, PA to look and to watch. And the statement of Robert E Lee, who’s no longer in favor. Did you ever notice that? No longer in favor. “Never fight uphill, me boys, never fight uphill.” They were fighting uphill, he said. Wow, that was a big mistake. He lost his great general, and they were fighting. “Never fight uphill, me boys,” but it was too late.

  • BoofStroke@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    That wasn’t a gaffe. It’s his normal way of not knowing a damned thing about any subject and just spewing random adjectives.