New York: US President Donald Trump drew scorn and laughter on social media Sunday after placing the Kansas City Chiefs in the wrong state following their Super Bowl victory.
Trump said the Chiefs had made Kansas State proud, but the team actually hail from neighbouring Missouri.
“Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on a great game and a fantastic comeback under immense pressure,” Trump tweeted. “You represented the Great State of Kansas and, in fact, the entire USA, so very well. Our Country is PROUD OF YOU!”
Trump however, deleted the tweet later, and replaced it with one naming the correct state.
Reaction online was swift – and not too polite – towards a commander-in-chief who has a troublesome history with maps.
“It’s Missouri you stone cold idiot,” responded a former US senator from the state, Claire McCaskill.
Lauren Arthur, a current Missouri state senator, tweeted: “Wrong state. Best stay out of things you don’t understand, like the Heart of America.”
Another user added, “Can’t believe the Deep State put Kansas City in MISSOURI just to embarrass Trump,” another user added.
The gaffe follows Trump’s Secretary of Sstate Mike Pompeo asking a reporter last week to place Ukraine on a map.
“This tweet comes amid an ongoing news cycle where Trump’s Secretary of State – who is very prominently from Kansas – claimed a reporter couldn’t find something on a map,” one journalist noted.
Others referenced ‘Sharpiegate’, when during ‘Hurricane Dorian’ in September last year Trump said the storm would ‘most likely’ sweep Alabama – and produced a doctored weather map to support his claim. The storm did not reach Alabama.
“Someone quickly take the Sharpie… out of Trump’s hands before he redraws the map of Kansas,” tweeted writer and television producer Bryan Behar, referring to the brand of pen.
Greg Krieg, a CNN politics reporter, tweeted: “Tomorrow: Trump waves around a map in Oval Office showing that Kansas City is, in fact, in Kansas.”
AFP
