President Donald Trump pronounced Thailand as “thigh” land as he toured the Whirlpool Corporation Manufacturing Plant on Thursday, and Twitter was quick to respond to the blunder.
While giving a speech about American manufacturing, as video from CNBC News shows — via YouTube – – the president mispronounced the Southeast Asian country’s name.
“Once more, your foreign competitors moved their factories to prevent a level playing field and to avoid liability,” Trump said. “Shifting production to ‘Thighland’ and to Vietnam.”
Trump said the word a second time shortly after the foul-up, saying it correctly the second time.
“Thailand and Vietnam. Two places, I like their leaders very much, they’re very nice to us. Do they take advantage of the United States? Not so much anymore,” he said.
Pundits and critics on Twitter jumped on the blunder right away, and the term Thighland began trending on the social media network on Thursday evening, with over 61,000 tweets within just a few hours.
“The stupidest man in the world has thoughts on Thighland, which is [where] they made that lamp in A Christmas Story. Apparently,” wrote the former Director of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, in a tweet seen here .
“When you see ‘Thighland’ trending there are really only two options. An infomercial gone horribly wrong. Or the President of the United States. Come to think of it, aren’t those the same thing?” wrote respected journalist Dan Rather on the social media platform. You can view Rather’s tweet here .
Many joked about the location of “Thigh” land, saying it is near Lapland, Calfenstein, and Elbonia.
Dinesh D’Souza defended Trump, saying that “thigh” land is the correct pronunciation, something that people challenged in the comments. Some pointed out that Trump later pronounced the word “tie-land,” so he’d said it wrong the second time, according to D’Souza’s logic.
Others compared Trump’s botched pronunciation to his recent speech during which he mispronounced Yosemite National Park, calling it “Yo-semite” instead. As The Inquisitr previously reported, as Trump was signing the Great American Outdoors Act, he extolled the virtues of a number of America’s national wonders. While noting the sequoia trees in the park, he stumbled over the name of it.
After the blunder, jokes erupted on Twitter with people wondering how the 74-year-old could have not heard the correct way to say the word after living in the country for his entire life.
Unsurprisingly, some people mused as to whether or not the two errors in just a few days were evidence of cognitive decline, given that the question has become a common talking point among some in progressive circles.