Trump misidentifies Ohio city where deadly mass shooting took place

Trump referred to 'Dayton' as 'Toledo' in his statement.
 By 
Nicole Gallucci
 on 

President Trump finally made a public statement on the deadly mass shootings that took place in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend, but in his speech he misidentified one of the cities.

On Monday morning, Trump condemned the attacks from the White House and claimed that the factors such as the internet, exposure to violent video games, and mental illness are to blame for mass shootings.

But when he ended his speech, he said, "May god bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo. May god protect them." Except the mass shooting didn't take place in Toledo, Ohio. It took place in Dayton, nearly 150 miles away.

There's a chance that Trump simply got his Ohio cities confused, or that one of his staffers accidentally wrote "Toledo" instead of "Dayton" in the statement, which Trump read off of a teleprompter. But the absolute least the president could do in the face of these tragedies is make sure he reports the facts correctly and attributes the victims to their rightful cities.

When a mass shooting occurs and you're addressing a nation, edit the speech. Multiple times. Messing up something as simple as the most basic fact about this mass shooting — its location — is simply not acceptable.

The shooting in El Paso on Saturday killed 22 people and wounded 27 more. In Dayton, 9 people were killed in the shooting on Sunday, and another 27 people were wounded.

UPDATE: Aug. 5, 2019, 1:24 p.m. EDT We updated the death toll in the El Paso shooting to 22 people, according to authorities.

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Nicole Gallucci

Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.

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