Donald Trump delivered a ready-made viral moment for his critics during his latest address, context be damned.
During a speech launching the government’s new AI-powered America.gov website on Tuesday, the president said “there’s nothing like it” and claimed “some of my friends, serious, high-tech people, they looked at this over the last couple of days, they can’t believe it.”
“They say, ‘This is one of the most incredible things that your government has done,’” Trump continued. “I don’t think so. I think it’s damn good. But someone said, ‘Sir, this is going to be the single biggest thing you’ve done in government.’ I said, ‘I don’t think so, but it’s damn good, OK?’ It’s just another thing, just another thing.”
Trump mimicked someone telling him, “‘Sir, sir, there’s no question this will be the biggest thing you’ve ever —’”
Then, returning to himself, Trump said: “If it is the biggest thing I’ve ever done, I’ve done a shitty job as president, I tell you. But you know what, it’s damn good.”
Trump was clearly seeking to say that if the new website — which is intended to act as a digital gateway to government services and has already contradicted his false claims about the 2020 election — turned out to be his biggest accomplishment, then his overall record would have been a failure.
But the words “I’ve done a shitty job as president” were quickly clipped from the exchange, shared across social media and, predictably, went viral.