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Melania Trump tweets, then quickly deletes, wrong Pearl Harbor date

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December 7, 2017 at 12:08 p.m. EST
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump visit the USS Arizona Memorial on Nov. 3 at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

It’s Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, and the first couple might want to also remember . . . to triple-check their tweets before posting.

First lady Melania Trump on Thursday tweeted the incorrect date of the Japanese bombing of the U.S. naval base in Hawaii, which was the catalyst for the involvement of the United States in World War II. Alongside a photo of her and President Trump from their visit to the memorial in Hawaii earlier this year, she wrote: “Today we honor Pearl Harbor Heroes. 11/7/1941 Thank you to all military for your courage and sacrifice!”

But, whoops, the correct date is 12/7/1941, of course. The tweet was swiftly deleted from the @FLOTUS account and a second tweet posted with the correct date.

The numerical typo is understandable (just ask POTUS, whose tweets often include a misspelling), but it’s not the first time that someone from the White House has gotten Pearl Harbor Day wrong.

In 1988, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush mystified a group of veterans during a speech to American Legion members by declaring, “Today is Pearl Harbor Day” — on Sept. 7. “Forty-seven years ago to this very day, we were hit and hit hard at Pearl Harbor and we were not ready,” Bush said, before he realized his error mid-speech and corrected himself. (And he should know: Bush was a Navy pilot in the Pacific in World War II!)

Earlier Thursday, the president took some ribbing on Twitter, too, for getting FDR’s famous quote about the day slightly wrong. Trump called it “A day that will live in infamy!” but Roosevelt actually used the words “date which” (and no exclamation point, which is far more of a Trumpian flourish than a Rooseveltian one).