US President Donald Trump has once again managed to create a social media storm as he mistakenly blamed Canada for the burning down of the White House in the War of 1812, in reference to the 1812 war, CNN reported.
As per the report, during a telephonic conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on 25 May, while discussing his administration’s tariffs on steel and Aluminium imports from Canada, Trump allegedly asked Trudeau "Didn't you guys burn down the White House?", sources close to CNN quoted.
Trump’s wide of the mark historical reference which was in response to Trudeau, when the latter asked how he could justify the tariffs as a “national security” issue.
Who Really Burned Down The White House?
The inaccuracy of Trump's comments to Trudeau didn’t go down well with historians, as it was indeed British troops that burned down the White House in 1814 during the War of 1812. Canada however, was formed as a country within the British empire much later in 1867, hence the question of Canada burning down the White House does not arise.
According to Historians quoted in the report, the attack on Washington was a in fact a retaliation for the attack on York, Ontario by America, which at the time was a British colony, that eventually became Canada.
Major Tanya Grodzinski, an associate history professor at the Royal Military College of Canada called Trump’s “completely inaccurate” as quoted by CNN. She further added that it was exclusively a British operation and that no Canadian troops were involved.
To claim that some incident from 200 years ago is the rationale behind the tariffs is completely unjustified, and it makes me question the basis of his policy and if there’s any thought to it whatsoever.Major Tanya Grodzinski, Associate History Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada to CNN.
As noted by the BBC, it was the only time that a foreign power has captured and occupied Washington. As British troops led by Maj Gen Robert Ross attacked and burned public buildings including the Capitol, Washington Navy Yard and the president's mansion during the conflict.
Twitter Gives Trump a History Lesson
As expected, Twitter had a field day at the expense of Trump’s latest gaffe, and like always Twitter users went hammer and tongs taking digs at the United States President.
Twitter users took it upon themselves to give Trump a history lesson he will never forget, hopefully.
Take a look at some of the tweets doing the rounds -
Even former Canadian Prime Minister couldn’t resist taking potshots at president Trump, as she tweeted about the “good old war of 1812 when we burned Washington”, which obviously never happened!
While Trump himself is an active user of the microblogging site, there is no mention about this particular conversation on his official Twitter handle.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)