“Covfefe.” “We just got back from the Middle East” — while in Israel. “Frederick Douglass…is getting recognized more and more.”
President Trump’s supporters would have us believe that all of his buffoonery is some masterful strategy to reel us in so we will underestimate him and he can use his low expectations to make deals.
Today, however, at a United Nations lunch for African leaders, Trump made a couple of gaffs that team MAGA will have trouble justifying. (Videos below.)
“Nambia’s healthcare system is increasingly self-sufficient,” Trump told attendees, delighting the Nambian people — if any existed.
Trump, at a lunch with African leaders, refers to the non-existent country of “Nambia.” pic.twitter.com/N8megnC1Xi
— David Mack (@davidmackau) September 20, 2017
Trump was likely conflating the nations of Namibia and Zambia to invent a fictitious country. Which one has an increasingly self-sufficient healthcare system? The world may never know. Trump, who seems to have a similar grasp on healthcare and African nations, certainly will not.
He got worse from there, adding insult to injury by telling Africans they should be grateful that his wealthy friends — great white saviors that they are — are coming to Africa to get rich:
“Africa has tremendous business potential,” Pres. Trump says https://t.co/T5uqoA85rO pic.twitter.com/8BPGp0Bjhi
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 20, 2017
The ignorant and condescending homage to the painful days of colonialism will largely go unnoticed by Trump’s supporters but not to those he was ostensibly speaking to.
Exploitation for the sake of foreign wealth is nothing new for the oil and diamond rich continent, and neither the money nor the corruption that comes with it have alleviated crippling poverty or deadly disease.
Meanwhile, the first instance, MAGA devotees will likely laugh off as a meaningless mistake, inadvertently inventing a country for an audience of its would-be neighbors,
Unfortunately, that attitude is the problem. We should demand a president who understands and even means the words he or she speaks. It’s called integrity. And that, even more than intelligence, is what is lacking in this president.
