After his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska on August 15 and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House Oval Office three days later, U.S. President Donald Trump talked foreign policy when he called into Fox News’ morning show, “Fox & Friends,” early Tuesday morning, August 19. And he appeared to forget the name of an ocean.
Trump told the hosts, “You know we have an ocean that’s separating us, right? A thing called…. an ocean. A big, beautiful ocean. And, uh, they don’t, they’re right there. So it’s a different kind of a thing for them.”
Trump, the Daily Beast’s Jack Silvers notes, “appeared to be referring to the Pacific Ocean, the largest body of water on Earth.”
Silvers explains, “The coast of Alaska, where Trump and Putin met last Friday, is separated by 55 miles of ocean from the eastern coast of Russia…. Famously, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said that ‘you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska’ in 2008, providing fodder for a viral ‘SNL’ spoof starring Tina Fey.”
Trump’s comments are generating some discussion on X, formerly Twitter.
The Daily Beast tweeted, “Trump appeared to have another senior moment as he rambled to Fox News about ‘a thing called… an ocean’ while discussing his meeting with Zelensky.”
Journalist Aaron Ruper said of the Daily Beast’s reporting, “This headline is incorrect. Trump was clearly referring to the Atlantic Ocean, not the Pacific.”
X user Terp Sitone posted, “Clearly a masterclass in geography.”
Another X user, Annie van Leur, wrote, “TRUMP CAN’T REMEMBER THE NAME OF THE OCEAN.”
Van Leur, in a separate tweet, commented, “If not for the Republicans in Congress, he’d be in an assisted living community somewhere. Donald Trump is a ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ president.”
Tag Archives: Pacific Ocean
Law & Crime: ‘Threatens to destroy’: Trump admin sued over move to ‘unleash’ commercial fishing in protected marine areas
Conservation advocacy organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over an executive order cutting protections for marine ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean.
The Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument was established in 2009 by then-President George W. Bush in his final days in office, and former President Barack Obama expanded the monument’s protections five years later. However, an April proclamation by President Donald Trump rolled back the 2014 safeguards in an effort to “unleash” United States commercial fishing in the central Pacific Ocean.
The Conservation Council for Hawaii, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Kapaʻa, an “unincorporated association of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners,” are seeking to stop the president from having his way.
