Two days into 2018, Donald Trump tweeted about the global lack of commercial airline deaths in 2017 by congratulating . . . himself? He wrote: "Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!" First of all, it seems that Trump thinks that capitalizing the first letter of "zero" in the middle of a sentence gives the number more emphasis. Second, to take personal credit for airlines avoiding fatal crashes (even though that's a great thing!) is pretty ridiculous, baseless, and self-absorbed, and it didn't take long for Twitter to start trolling the president for such a claim.
Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
After Trump sent out the tweet, people were quick to follow up with responses ranging from basic scolding to straight-up mocking his sentence with other far-reaching claims, like, "Since taking office the earth has continued its orbit around the sun. I've been very tough on heliocentrism to make sure it works properly." Someone even responded with a relevant Forbes article that reported 2016 was the seventh straight year with no plane-crash deaths from a United States-certified scheduled airline. What makes this whole exchange even more ludicrous is that Reddit user theonetrueNathan actually posted about Trump bragging about airline safety as a total joke, and later it came true.
OMG Give me a break. Are you seriously trying to take credit for that?
- Greg Shugar (@GregShugar) January 2, 2018
Next he'll be taking credit for the earth going around the sun.
- JPB (@bookeraptor) January 2, 2018
You know Trump is a sicko when he takes credit for no aviation deaths instead of crediting pilots, airlines, transportation safety & air traffic control! What an arrogant, self absorbed egomaniacal little twit!
- Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) January 2, 2018
Since taking office the earth has continued its orbit around the sun. I've been very tough on heliocentrism to make sure it works properly. https://t.co/FUpXlxjOLX
- Curtis Harris (@curtismharris) January 2, 2018
so, about the 32,000+ gun deaths in 2017. Guess those are on you then since this is how it works?
- Matt Thorne (@mattthorne) January 2, 2018
We haven't had any commercial deaths in almost a decade.
- LeftofCRAZYTOWN (@LeftofCrazytown) January 2, 2018
Looks like 2018 just might give last year a run for its money in the world of unbelievable Trump tweets.
