Morning Joe Roasts Trump Confusing ‘Alaska’ And ‘Afghanistan’ In Rally Speech Intended to Show Off His Military Expertise

MSNBC’s Morning Joe crew mocked former President Donald Trump for mistakenly conflating an Alaskan wildlife refuge with a military base in Afghanistan while trying to show off his military expertise during a town hall in Michigan on Tuesday.

At the event, moderated by Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump was discussing his energy policies when he confused the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska, which he had opened for oil and gas development during his presidency, with the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Trump told attendees: “We have Bagram in Alaska. They say it might be as big, might be bigger than all of Saudi Arabia. I got it approved. Ronald Reagan couldn’t do it. Nobody could do it. I got it done.”

While he appeared to recognize his mistake, his attempted clarification did little to dispel the confusion. “Check that one out, Bagram. It’s—no, think about this: Between Bagram, between—you go to ANWR, you take a look at the kind of things that we’ve given up. We should have that air base. We should have that oil.”

Trump’s blunder was played back at the opening of Tuesday’s Morning Joe on Wednesday as host Joe Scarborough called on co-host Willie Geist to pull up his “Google machine” to fact-check the former president.

Scarborough said: “Check it out, Willie. You got your Google machine? Bagram, Alaska. I hear there is some of the best moose hunting in all of the world in Bagram.”

Showing images of the two locations side by side, Scarborough continued: “Bagram left. That would be… Bagram, Alaska, Bagram, Afghanistan to the right. No. I think he may have confused Alaska and Afghanistan.”

Geist added: “Not a slip of the tongue either. He said it five or six times, closed with: ‘Check it. Google it. Find it. Look it up. Take it to the bank.’ One thing he is right, though. Ronald Reagan did nothing about Bagram so that part of it is true.”

“Thank God. Thank God he is so much better than every other president ever, he says, except for the other 45,” Scarborough continued.

Co-host Mika Brzezinski commentated: “So that was a campaign event in Michigan last night where he repeatedly confused Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, known as ANWAR, with Bagram military base in Afghanistan.

“It happens. It happens,” Scarborough quipped.

Watch above on MSNBC.