Twitter Drags Donald Trump For Declaring ‘There Was No Man’ In Drone — ‘Then It Would Have Been A Plane’
Early on Thursday, the Revolutionary Guard of Iran, that country’s most elite military force, announced that it had shot down an “intruding American spy drone” after the drone had penetrated Iranian airspace, according to a CNN report. United States officials confirmed that Iran had indeed downed a U.S. drone, but claimed that the drone was flying in international airspace at the time, not over Iranian territory.
But it was Donald Trump’s unusual explanation of the incident during a brief exchange with reporters later on Thursday that brought Twitter users online to rip Trump for stating that the incident would have been far more serious if the drone had been occupied by a “man or woman.” Trump said that it would have made “a big difference” if the drone were manned, according to Fox News.
Of course, as Space.com explained, the definition of a “drone” is “an unpiloted aircraft or spacecraft.” In fact, the technical term for the type of aircraft commonly called a drone is UAV — Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
But Trump appeared either unaware of or confused by this distinction, according to a Raw Story account of his statement.
“There was no man in it and there was no — it was just — it was over international waters, clearly over international waters, but we didn’t have a man or woman in the drone. We had nobody in the drone,” Trump said.
Twitter users immediately went online to correct Trump’s off-kilter understanding of drone technology.
Trump: :"It would have made a big difference if the drone was manned."
Yes, Donnie, because then it would have been a plane.
— Christopher Moore, not kidding (@TheAuthorGuy) June 20, 2019
Someone at Boeing is trying to figure out if they can make money selling airplanes to Trump as "manned drones." https://t.co/cv8l6KAo0d
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) June 20, 2019
D’oooh! *Everyone* knows that drones are manned by little gremlins who feed on toe-lices and smoke tinny cuban cigars made in the Philippines… pic.twitter.com/DYU2XhSXoq
— Alion ? (@MaskMyster) June 21, 2019
Another Twitter user speculated, with tongue cheek, that a manned drone program must be an “unannounced wing of the Trump Space Force.”
Trump has repeatedly called for the formation of a fifth branch of the U.S. military to be named “Space Force.” And in February, according to Defense News, Trump signed an order supposedly creating the new military “Space Force,” but making it part of the existing U.S. Air Force.
And another sarcastic Twitter user enthused that, “they are developing these things called planes….You may have even seen them in the skies doing tests except I’ve also heard they might be invisible so maybe not.”
The drone that was shot down by the Iranians was reportedly a U.S. Navy Global Hawk reconnaissance drone, similar to the one pictured in the image above on this page, according to the Middle East news service, Al Jazeera. Each Global Hawk drone is believed to cost $150 million to manufacture, and as a result, there were only 35 in the U.S. fleet prior to the Iranian shootdown — which was the first time a Global Hawk drone had been shot down.
