Mandatory history lessons might be in order for Trump’s Cabinet after one of its members got multiple U.S. history facts wrong during a television appearance.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum appeared on Fox News’ America Reports on Monday, which was broadcasting live from the Great American State Fair.
Burgum encouraged viewers to “get out and visit” some of the country’s national parks over the holiday weekend before praising President Theodore Roosevelt for establishing several during his presidency.
He then attempted to draw a through line from George Washington to Roosevelt, and all the way to Trump, telling hosts Sandra Smith and John Roberts, “He [Roosevelt] was president at the 125th, so I think, we had Washington at the 1st, we had TR at the 125th, and we’ve got President Trump at the 250.”
“All three of them remarkable changemakers moving our country forward,” he added.
Although Washington was the nation’s first president, he only took up the role in 1789 after the Constitution was ratified in 1788. The 250th anniversary refers to the country’s founding in 1776, 13 years before Washington became president. At the time, Washington commanded the Patriot forces as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.
In addition, the 125th birthday took place on July 4, 1901, when William McKinley was president, as Mediaite noted. Theodore Roosevelt would not become president until two months later, after McKinley was assassinated and Roosevelt, as his vice president, was sworn in as his replacement.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Burgum’s office for comment.
In addition to affording the secretary the opportunity to display his lack of historical knowledge, Burgum’s appearance on the program had the added bonus of inadvertently embarrassing the president.
Despite the president’s claims that the opening weekend of his Great American State Fair was jam-packed, the images of the fair behind Burgum, Smith, and Roberts as they spoke tell a different story, with the sparsely populated fairgrounds visible in the background throughout the segment.
The fair, organized by the president to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary, has been plagued with problems from the start, with multiple musical guests booked to perform canceling en masse.
Trump’s opening night rally on Wednesday night also appeared to suffer from lackluster attendance, with CNN’s live broadcast showing significant empty green space on the field behind reporter Donie O’Sullivan.
The event didn’t fare much better once it was underway, experiencing power outages on the first day that melted all of the ice cream and generator problems that briefly shut down the Ferris wheel.
Bad weather has plagued the event, forcing Vanilla Ice, one of the few performers who didn’t cancel his appearance at the fair, to cancel his show anyway.
In addition, extreme heat and rain forced organizers to temporarily close the fair on Sunday afternoon.
The president has not been immune to the negativity surrounding his event, publishing an early-morning Truth Social complaint aimed at his detractors.
“Do you think people appreciate what a fantastic job we did in building and operating the Great American State Fair at the National Mall, packed with happy people, and everybody loving it?” Trump wrote at 6.27 a.m. on Monday.
“Ask yourself this simple question, ‘DO YOU THINK THAT OBUMA OR SLEEPY JOE BIDEN COULD HAVE DONE IT?’ THE ANSWER IS NO!”
