President Donald Trump on Wednesday left supporters in North Dakota with mouths agape after he inadvertently made a risque reference to a "threesome" involving his two eldest sons while attempting to joke about awarding them the country’s highest military honor.
Trump was roughly an hour into remarks celebrating the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota when he started riffing on how Roosevelt and his son were just one of two father-son pairs to earn the Medal of Honor in wartime.
“Except for Arthur and Douglas MacArthur ... they're the only father and son pair to receive our nation's highest military award for courage above and beyond the call of duty. Now, as I see my two beautiful sons sitting there, I think I'm going to give one to myself, one to them, and we'll have a threesome,” he joked.
As the audience gasped, he quickly pivoted to suggesting giving just one of his two sons — neither of whom, like him, have served in the military — the high honor, along with himself.
“Ok, I'll pick out one of the two. I'll give them the Congressional Medal of Honor for something for their genius at hunting, and I'll get one for taking on Russia, Russia, Russia, or something, and we'll have a third pair now,” he said before adding that he was “only kidding.”
It was the second time in several hours that he’d joked about awarding the medal to himself.
Earlier in the day, he presented Roosevelt’s medal — which had been in the White House collection — to Interior Secretary (and former North Dakota governor) Doug Burgum at a ribbon-cutting to officially open the facility.
“You know, I want to give one to myself, but they tell me, and I'm allowed to,” he said.
Trump added that he’d abandoned the idea after his two eldest sons told him they could not think of anything he’d done to deserve the medal, which is awarded for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.”
His bizarre comments came near the tail-end of a rambling appearance in the Rough Rider State, during which he turned the opening of one of his predecessors’ presidential libraries into a lengthy stemwinder full of attacks on backbench congressional candidates, boasts about his own administration’s accomplishments and attacks on his predecessors during a rare day trip out of Washington to a venue he does not own.
The president used remarks at the library dedication to suggest that Roosevelt would not have approved of previous Democratic presidents, including his predecessor Joe Biden.
Roosevelt, he said, “transformed his country by the reach of his vision into one of the greatest places, one of the greatest empires, one of the most incredible countries, ready to take its rightful place as the strongest and most respected nation anywhere in the world.”
“They didn't have people that didn't, couldn't, they had no idea where they were. They didn't have people that couldn't walk up the steps, see those steps. They didn't have people that had no idea where the hell they were. They didn't have people that said, "Let's have open borders, so millions and millions of people can pour into our country from prisons all over the world. They didn't have those people. They had strong, smart people like Teddy Roosevelt,” Trump said.
Trump then launched into a canned line about how the country he leads is now “stronger and more respected” because he is the president instead of Biden while repeating a oft-used quote he attributes to King Salman of Saudi Arabia about the U.S. being “the hottest country.”
As he continued through he prepared remarks, he often ad-libbed political asides that had nothing to do with the subject at hand, such as when he somehow pivoted from a line about Roosevelt’s time as a deputy sheriff to an attack on the previous administration’s “open border” policies.
“We do pretty good. Thank you. We have the best border, strongest border. We went from the worst border in history in three months to the best border in history, so we do okay,” Trump said just before returning to an anecdote about how Roosevelt had once been “crushed” by a horse.
Not long after, Trump turned a story about Roosevelt’s valor against Spanish forces into a rant about Spain’s refusal to assist his war against Iran, telling attendees that the Spanish are “not very good members of NATO” and warning that they’ll “learn soon” and are “not behaving nicely.”
Another set of comments thanking the law enforcement officers who’d assisted with security for his visit there turned into a rant about how a group of New York congressional candidates are “actually communists” and are “very unattractive.”
And yet another random anecdote included a story about a hypothetical police officer who came up to him “almost sort of crying” to thank the president for saving his marriage with policies that helped the officer’s 401(k) retirement account go up in value — even though most police officers have defined-benefit pensions that are far more lucrative than an investment account.
“He came up to me and he said, ‘Sir, II want to thank you so much. Well, my 401(k) is up 84%. My wife was disgusted with me for years. We just, it was just going in the wrong direction, but it's up 84% this year. And I just want to thank you, sir, because it's really helped me with my marriage.
“My wife is respecting me again. She thought I was an idiot,’” Trump claimed the cop told him.
The facility celebrating the 26th President of the United States which Trump visited is not one of the 16 official presidential libraries run by the National Archives and does not house documents or research materials from Roosevelt’s presidency.
Trump arrived in North Dakota earlier in the day after his inaugural flight aboard the former Qatari royal jet that his administration has converted for use as a temporary presidential transport after Doha gifted it to the Defense Department last year.
After flying from Bismarck to Medora aboard Marine One, he made a brief rail journey to the library site aboard a train painted to advertise his administration’s Freedom 250 celebration of the country’s semiquincentennial.
The train was accompanied by a group of horseback riders dressed to resemble the Rough Riders, the U.S. volunteer cavalry regiment led by Roosevelt.
Trump, whose aides often compare him to Roosevelt, told reporters the 26th president was a “great man” and called the library “a great place.”
He also said he was “getting some ideas” for his own presidential library, which is slated to be constructed in Miami.
