Trump struggles to pronounce various words during rambling speech to veterans

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Donald Trump struggled to pronounce a series of words in front of military veterans during a rambling speech that ranged from attacks on media outlets he disagrees with to threats to release Isis militants into Europe

Wednesday’s official event in Louisville, Kentucky, nominally used to announce a cancellation of student debt owed by permanently disabled US veterans, at times resembled a Trump campaign rally, and saw the president repeatedly stumble over lines read out from a teleprompter.

It followed an extraordinary huddle with reporters earlier in the day outside the White House in which Mr Trump attacked the Danish prime minister for rejecting his advances over Greenland, referred to himself as the “Chosen One”, suggested he could change the constitution to abolish birthright citizenship and talked about serving another 14 years as president.

“We're holding thousands of Isis fighters right now - prisoners. And we're going to give them to, from where they came. The Europe (sic), certain countries in Europe, they got to take them back because we don't want to hold them,” Mr Trump said in reference to America's presence in Syria.

Touting the US military’s global pre-eminence, Mr Trump appeared to repeatedly struggle with the word “forces”, before mangling the name of Douglas MacArthur, a prominent Second World War general.

“The members of our armed forcef (sic) I, and you understand that very well - the members of our armed forcer (sic) have always lived by the word of Douglas Magarth (sic): ‘In war, there is no substitute for victory’."

Attacking the media, Mr Trump said of veterans accessing the US medical system: “I'm not hearing bad stories. I'm hearing all good stories. But the fake news will go out and they'll find somebody in the system.

“They'll find somebody. They'll find somebody in this giant medical system - the largest system in the world, by far. They're going to find somebody that wasn't treated perfectly. And he'll be on the top of the news tonight: ‘We have breaking news’."

Towards the end of his speech, Mr Trump grappled with the words “applicable” and “obstacles”.

“Today, I'm also calling upon all 50 states to immediately waive all appliculble (sic) state taxes as well,” Mr Trump said regarding veterans, before moving onto praising a disabled veteran named Katherine, who he misnamed "Karen".

“Despite these obselels (sic), Karen is now pursuing a degree at the University of Nevada.”

The White House has previously suggested the president's occasionally slurred speech and tendency to mispronounce words has been the result of a "dry throat", while commentators have speculated a range of medical conditions could be to blame, including simply bad eyesight.

Earlier this year, Mr Trump made headlines when he repeatedly failed in an attempt to say "origins" while in a White House press briefing with the Nato secretary general.

“I hope they now go and take a look at the oranges, the oranges of the investigation, the beginnings of that investigation,” Mr Trump said in April, in reference to the special counsel probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

He added: “The Mueller report I wished covered the oranges, how it started, the beginnings of the investigation."