US President Donald Trump appeared to rewrite American history during a speech at his ‘Salute to America’ parade for the 4th of July on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, on Thursday, claiming that during the 1775 Revolutionary War, the US Army “manned the air” and “took over airports.”
“In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified army out of the revolutionary forces encamped around Boston and New York,” Trump told a rain-soaked crowd.
“Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory,” he added.
Trump’s ‘flight of fancy’ also took on a futuristic flare when after hailing retired aerospace engineer and NASA flight director Gene Kranz, he announced, “Someday soon we will plant the American flag on Mars.”
The event featured military flyovers as Trump listed the achievements of each branch of the US Armed Forces, while the speech was punctuated by chants of “USA, USA” from a pumped-up crowd.