In a speech off Mount Rushmore, President Donald Trump seemed to crawl as he stumbled over several words, most notably “totalitarianism.”
The speech to commemorate Independence Day was an official presidential speech that sometimes felt more like a campaign event, and saw the president accuse “angry mobs” of deploying “cancel culture” to demand “total submission from anyone who disagree “- referring to protests over statues of controversial historical figures.
“This is the very definition of totalitarianism,” he said.
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George Conway, co-founder of the Lincoln Project and husband of Kellyanne Conway, senior advisor to the President, tried to explain what was said phonetically on Twitter: “Totallie-tario-tism.”
The President also seemed to have a hard time saying “Ulysses S Grant,” and seemed to freeze briefly while talking about Thomas Jefferson.
In addition to destroying the word totalitarianism, its use was questioned, due to continuous attacks against the government’s oversight by the administration.
Many on social networks denounced that the president not only could not pronounce the word, but also did not seem to understand what it meant.
Michael McFaul, professor of political science at Stanford University, said: “Trump obviously has no idea what words like fascism and totalitarianism mean. For those who wrote that speech, the fault is yours. For those who clarified this speech, the fault is yours. Perhaps the most anti-American speech ever delivered by a US president, on the eve of July 4. “
The Lincoln Project, the group of Republicans who vehemently opposes the Trump administration, quickly tweeted images of the President saying the word, preceded by: “We must stop the spread of.”
The group also said the speech closely resembled that the president had not read it before and was unprepared.
While the speech was intended to be a gigantic rejuvenation of the President’s campaign, in light of the deadly mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic consequences, it also underlined how much the campaign wants to turn the page on the issues. current.
“My only consolation from his speech is that his degree of insanity is probably best explained by Trump’s current level of despair,” Professor McFaul tweeted. “A sure president seeking reelection would never have to resort to calling fascist or totalitarian compatriots.”
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