Donald Trump referred to meeting with the ‘president of the Virgin Islands’ in a speech. He himself is said president.
Addressing the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Friday, he said: ‘I will tell you, I left Texas and I left Florida, and I left Louisiana, and I went to Puerto Rico, and I met with the President of the Virgin Islands.
‘These are people that are incredible people.’
President Donald Trump arrives to speak to the 2017 Value Voters Summit, at which he said: ‘I went to Puerto Rico, and I met with the President of the Virgin Islands. ‘These are people that are incredible people.’ Trump himself is their president. The US Virgin Islands have a governor. His linguistic oversight was amended in the official White House transcript of the speech
Trump and First Lady Melania met with US Virgin Islands Governor Kenneth Mapp aboard the USS Kearsarge off the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico during Trump’s four-hour visit to the island territory on October 3
The US Virgin Islands are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. As a United States territory, Trump is in fact their president.
The Virgin Islands have a governor named Kenneth Mapp.
The official White House transcript of the speech has the word ‘president’ crossed out and the word ‘governor’ in brackets following it, CNN reports.
Mapp is the 29th Governor of the US Virgin Islands
In his speech, he did correctly refer to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico as territories.
At a congressional hearing on Thursday, Energy Secretary Rick Perry called Puerto Rico ‘a country that already had its challenges before the storm’. He apologized when told of the flub.
Trump made the gaffe while addressing the Values Voter Summit. He is the first sitting president to address the gathering organized by the Family Research Council, which the Southern Poverty Law Center states is an anti-LGBT extremist group.
Trump and Mapp met two weeks ago aboard the USS Kearsarge, which was anchored off the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico during Trump’s four-hour visit to the island territory.
The president received a briefing on hurricane relief efforts during the meeting.
The US Virgin Islands have been heavily damaged during this hurricane season. They were first hit by Hurricane Irma and later by Hurricane Maria.