It seems it's not a Donald Trump press conference unless everyone walks away completely confused.
Trump held a joint presser with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on ??? ?? ????Tuesday afternoon, where he spent the entire time calling the visiting world leader the "president of Spain" instead of "prime minister."
*sigh
*SEE ALSO: John McCain just body-slammed Trumpcare and the bill's sponsor tweeted a surprising response"Good afternoon I'm greatly honored to welcome President Mariano Rajoy...of Spain...and it's a great honor to have you at the White House" Trump said in a somewhat quizzical voice.
Though Trump's not entirelywrong — as the official websites for the CIA and Spanish government do refer to Rajoy as the President of the Government of Spain — he is commonly and most correctly referred to as Prime Minister.
Credible news outlets like The New York Timesand even the United Nationsalso callRajoy by the title of Prime Minister, so people were a bit confused by Trump's departure from protocol. Possibly the most confused was Rajoy himself, who appeared to whip his head around after first hearing Trump address him.
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Trump continued to call Rajoy "president" the entire conference, despite hearing members of the press refer to him as prime minister — and even addressed him as "Mr. President" at one point.
The White House also referred to Rajoy as president in an official tweet announcing the press conference, which further emphasized the misleading title.
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After noticing Trump said president instead of prime minister — not to mention how off-guard Rajoy looked upon hearing it — people immediately began calling him out on Twitter.
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Though Trump got a significant amount of backlash after the press conference, past statements on the White House website — such as this one from 2015 — havereferred to Rajoy as the "Spanish President."
Though it's worth noting that in Obama's 2016 joint remarks with Rajoy, he consistently called him Prime Minister, beginning by stating:
Well, let me begin by thanking Prime Minister Rajoy and his team and the Spanish people for welcoming us. It has been an extraordinarily gracious and warm welcome, particularly given the tough situation that we've had at home and my need to rearrange my schedule.
Just saying...
UPDATE: Sept. 27, 2017, 9:45 a.m. EDT This story has been updated to clarify the formal office of the Spanish leader Mariano Rajoy.
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