Trump Blames Teleprompter Snafu for Airport Gaffe in Speech: ‘It’s Hard to Look at in the Rain’
President Donald Trump blamed a teleprompter malfunction for a bizarre tangent in his Fourth of July speech where he mentioned airports in the Revolutionary War.
“The teleprompter went out, it went kaput. So I could have said — and actually right in the middle of sentence it went out. That’s not a good feeling,” Trump told reporters Friday shortly before leaving the White House en route to his golf club in Bedminster, NJ.
“I knew the speech very well so I was able to do it without a teleprompter. But the teleprompter did go out. And it was actually hard to look at anyway because it was rain all over it. But despite the rain, that was just a fantastic evening.” he continued.
Trump has often lambasted politicians who use teleprompters for speeches.
“I’ve always said, if you run for president, you shouldn’t be allowed to use teleprompters,” Trump said in 2015. “Because you don’t even know if the guy is smart.”
In 2016, he softened his stance on the technology, saying of teleprompters ““They’re not bad. You never get yourself in trouble when you use a teleprompter. You know the problem is, it’s too easy. We have a president who uses teleprompters, it’s too easy. We should have non-teleprompter speeches only when you’re running for president.”
[Mediaite]