U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to have some difficulty getting out the words “swift and sweeping” during a speech on the Fourth of July, and his critics on Twitter certainly took notice.
Trump stumbled over his words at times during the Independence Day speech in which he extolled the success of the U.S. military and its victories in foreign wars. As the president was trying to explain the speed with which the U.S. military helped to liberate Kuwait during the first Gulf War, he had to repeat the words “swift and sweeping” after making an apparent mistake the first time.
“swipping” pic.twitter.com/rzO4RodaYt
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 4, 2020
Many took to Twitter to share the clip and mock Trump for stumbling over his words. Some speculated that it was an example of Trump struggling to read a written speech from a teleprompter.
“The teleprompter said ‘swift and sweeping victory’ and that was just too much for Trump’s mind to process in one gulp, so he tried to pretend he meant to say it. He always does this when his reading fails,” tweeted political blogger Charles Johnson.
Some critics pointed out other points where Trump seemed to have difficulty during other parts of the speech, including what they saw as jumbling together different military operations.
Many of those making fun of the president for his verbal mishap noted that Trump himself has made it a point to attack others who struggle at times with public speaking, namely his Democratic opponent. Both Trump and his adult sons have taken to mocking Joe Biden for his verbal gaffes, even suggesting that Biden could be suffering some kind of cognitive decline. Critics saw Trump’s struggles in the Fourth of July speech as being fair game given his attacks on Biden.
“Trump mocks Biden for his stutter that he’s had since a child, but cannot get through a speech without slurring, or incoherent sentences or substance,” tweeted one of the president’s critics.
“This is just a short snippet of his slurs. To get a real fright or laugh, watch it on MSNBC.”
The struggles during the Fourth of July speech came just a day after Trump got some viral mockery for other difficulties during an address at Mount Rushmore. As The Inquisitr noted, Trump appeared to have a difficult time pronouncing the names of some past American presidents, which again led to mockery from his critics online and viral clips of the difficulties spreading across social media.