President Trump made grand display over the importance of respecting patriotic songs and traditions during a White House event on Tuesday, before trying and failing to lip synch along to “God Bless America” with the United States Army Chorus. The “Celebration of America” event was reportedly cobbled together when the president disinvited the Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles to the traditional ceremony after learning that almost no one from the team wanted to show up to the White House while he was there. According to Politico, the team tried to reschedule the meeting for when the president was overseas, but when that failed,only “two or three players, the owner, and the team’s beloved mascot, Swoop” were willing to meet Trump. The president reacted by blaming the team’s reluctance to meet him by blaming anthem protests, even though no Eagles players took a knee during the 2017 season.
“We love our country, we respect our flag and we always proudly stand for the national anthem,” Trump said. “We always will stand for the national anthem.”
The hastily cobbled together eight-minute afterthought of an event peaked when president Trump tried and failed to sing “God Bless America.” At an event dedicated to dictating how people should behave during patriotic songs, Trump either didn’t know the lyrics to one patriotic songs upon which the entire photo op hinged, or he for some reason decided to only meekly sing certain sections of it.
At his Celebration of America event, Trump doesn’t appear to know the words to “God Bless America.” pic.twitter.com/fzwe1gFejM
— David Mack (@davidmackau) June 5, 2018
As you can see, he starts strong with the first two lines, but then it all turns to shit when he begins to lip synch some gibberish before shutting his mouth and nodding along.
Pres. Trump, though standing, does not sing “God Bless America” word-for-word, nodding along to melody as military chorus sings “through the night with the light from above” https://t.co/SvRFR0SLJu pic.twitter.com/UlBL0NlgoB
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 5, 2018
While the president was dictating the jingoistic fealty people should display when certain songs are played in public, a gentleman was seen taking a knee.
A man takes a knee during Trump’s celebration. pic.twitter.com/zghJSk2YOu
— Carina Bergfeldt (@carinabergfeldt) June 5, 2018
Trump sure did teach the Eagles and the rest of the NFL a lesson by apparently botching a song about America at an event organized to celebrate America.
