Trump claims US Army ‘took over airports’ a century before invention of planes

President Donald Trump has claimed that the US Army troops “took over the airports” during a conflict which broke out almost a century before the first planes took flight.

He made the comment in a Fourth of July speech dedicated largely to American military might, at the Lincoln Memorial, which sparked mockery from some of the president’s critics.

“Our army manned the amparts (sic), it ranned (sic) the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do,” Trump said while reportedly struggling to read from the autocue, while he was giving speech.

It was not clear whether he was referring to a moment during the Revolutionary War or the later war of 1812, the Wright brothers would not pilot the first powered flight until 1903.  

The Revolutionary War was also fought between British and American troops.

Former deputy secretary of labour in the Obama administration Chris Lu tweeted: “This is a president too stupid to know what he’s saying, a White House too incompetent to do basic fact checking, or someone with a serious reading problem.”

A director at Human Rights Watch, Andrew Stroehlein, sarcastically hailed Britain’s “legendary” air superiority in 18th century conflicts.

Trump has raised criticism yet again, just days after he appeared confused by questions about school “busing” and “Western-style democratic liberalism” during a press conference at the G20 in Japan.