Donald Trump’s Toledo Gaffe

Submission 1,362

Part of a series on 2019 Dayton Shooting. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Donald Trump's "Toledo" Gaffe refers to remarks made by United States President Donald Trump who mistakenly named Toldeo, Ohio as the location for the Dayton, Ohio mass shooting.

Background

On August 4th, 2019, 24-year-old Connor Stephen Betts opened fire with AR-15 semi-automatic rifle at a bar in Dayton, Ohio, killing nine people.

The following day, in a televised speech, Trump commented on the shootings, mistakenly naming Toledo, Ohio. ^[1]He said, "May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo."

Developments

White House Correction

In a transcript of his speech, the White House included the mistake, striking a line through the words "in Toledo" (shown below).

Government Reaction

The mayors of both Dayton and Toledo commented on the mistake. The Hill tweeted a video of Mayor of Dayton Nan Whaley commenting that they were told the President may be visiting Dayton. They said, "I've heard that [President Trump's] coming Wednesday but I have not gotten a call. And you know he might be going to Toledo, I don't know."

In a statement,^[2] Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said, It’s pretty obvious the president misspoke this morning, and that happens to all of us from time to time. Nevertheless, Toledo is happy to accept his prayers, even if they were meant for Dayton."

Online Reaction

Following the gaffe, photographs of Trump reading from a teleprompter during the speech went viral. Reporter Andrew Feinberg tweeted ^[3] the photograph with the caption, "Holy Toledo, it wasn’t even on the TelePrompTer." The tweet received more than 32,000 likes and 10,000 retweets in 24 hours (shown below, left).

Others were quick to point out that Vice President Joe Biden also mistook the location of the shooting for Houston and Michigan. CNN's Rebecca Buck tweeted,^[4] "Before 'Toledo,' Joe Biden also confused the locations of the mass shootings, speaking at a fundraising event yesterday in San Diego." The tweet received more than 700 likes and 260 retweets in 24 hours (shown below, right).

However, some took offense from the gaffe. Twitter^[5] user @mlb45459 tweeted, "I live in Dayton, Ohio and all day yesterday, the news reported we had a mass shooting here. How did I get transported to Toledo??? Shows how little our president cares. #DaytonStrong #Toledo" (shown below).

That day, Twitter^[6] published a Moments page on the gaffe.