Donald Trump makes repeated public gaffes on language history and Ukraine's leader

President Donald Trump sparked criticism after a keynote address at a Mount Rushmore event celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, where he claimed, “In America, we speak English because that is the language of our founding… For a thousand years, that has been the language of freedom.” Social‑media users highlighted the inaccuracy, noting the United States has existed only 250 years.

Two days later at a NATO summit in Turkey, Trump again misspoke, addressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” and asking reporters, “Do you have a question for President Putin, please?” The error echoed a similar slip by former President Joe Biden at the same summit two years earlier. Trump also misidentified Iran as “the Islamic Republic of Japan.”