Trump Mocked On Social Media For Rant About ‘Beautiful’ Battle Of Gettysburg With 50,000 Casualties, Praising ‘No Longer In Favor’ Robert E. Lee

Former President Donald Trump has received backlash on social media after a rant about the Battle of Gettysburg in which he got numerous facts wrong.

This battle, which took place from July 1 to July 3, 1863, revolved around Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launching a second invasion of the North, only for him to be defeated by General George Meade’s Army of the Potomac in a conflict which had resulted in over 50,000 casualties.

“Gettysburg, what an unbelievable battle that was,” Trump stated during a Schnecksville, Pennsylvania rally on April 13. “The Battle of Gettysburg, what an unbelievable… I mean it was so much, and so interesting and so vicious and horrible and so beautiful in so many different ways. It represented such a big portion of the success of this country – Gettysburg, wow.”

“I go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to look and watch the statement of Robert E. Lee, who’s no longer in favor,” he stated. “Did you ever notice it? He’s no longer in favor. ‘Never fight uphill, me boys, never fight uphill.’ They were fighting uphill, he said, ‘Wow, that was a big mistake.’ He lost his big general. ‘Never fight uphill, me boys.’ But it was too late.”

The former president’s remarks about the Battle of Gettysburg were met with swift criticism from social media users.

“My God, there are third graders with a better grasp of U.S. history than Trump,”  J.J. Mendolovitz wrote on X.

“Lee is not known to have spoken like a stereotype of an Irishman, nor to have issued downslope-only orders,” historian T.J. Stiles wrote in an X post.

Stiles also noted in a separate post that “Trump’s rambling, unhinged depiction of Lee” was comparable to “a great general betrayed by his stupid troops.” 

He also mentioned that one would “never know [Lee] gave the orders for the campaign and battle” as well as how the Confederate soldier “said after Pickett’s charge that it was all his fault” and that “it was.”

“Of course Trump romanticizes Gettysburg, calling it ‘beautiful,'” the attorney Ron Filipkowski stated in an X post. “Americans killed and maimed 50,000 other Americans. That’s three days of ecstasy for Trump.”

The U.S. Civil War is a frequent subject for the former president at his rallies. 

On Jan. 6, Trump declared during a campaign rally in Newton, Iowa, that the civil war could have been “negotiated” and may not have happened at all.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) replied to Trump’s remarks on X by asking the GOP members who endorsed him how they could “possibly defend” aspects of the Civil War like “slavery” and “secession.”

Journalist Ahmed Baba also criticized the former president on X, saying that “slavery couldn’t have been ‘negotiated,'” and that back then, “it was slavery or no slavery.”