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Trump demands respect for the national anthem—then forgets the lyrics

If it’s such a big deal, why didn’t he learn the words?

Photo of Kris Seavers

Kris Seavers

Trump tweets demanding respect for the national anthem and then forgets the lyrics.

Ahead of the biggest game in college football on Monday night, President Donald Trump tweeted to demand respect for the national anthem. A few hours later, he appeared to forget how to sing it.

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Trump’s tweet included a video of himself speaking in defense of farmers, the American flag, and “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“We want our flag respected – and we want our NATIONAL ANTHEM respected also!” Trump wrote, no doubt referring to athletes’ national anthem protests against police brutality.

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Just hours after tweeting, Trump showed up at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for the national championship game between the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama.

Not only was he booed on the way in, but Trump also appeared to botch the lyrics to the national anthem. He hardly moved his mouth to the second line of the song. (It goes like this: “What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming.”) 

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Trump didn’t appear to know many of the words to the anthem at all. At some points, he stopped even pretending to sing.

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People on Twitter pointed out the irony of Trump forgetting the words to the national anthem after so adamantly demanding respect for it.

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Writer and Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King called Trump not knowing the national anthem a “disgrace.”

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https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/950550238506504192

“All of that hate he has spewed toward Black folk about taking a knee and the man doesn’t know the words,” King wrote.

 
The Daily Dot