People on Twitter collectively fact-checked President Donald Trump after he incorrectly claimed during his border visit Thursday that wheels are older than walls.
“They say ‘a wall is medieval.’ Well, so is a wheel. A wheel is older than a wall. And I looked, and every single car out there — even the really expensive ones the Secret Service uses — [and] I said, ‘Do they all have wheels?’” Trump joked during his visit to the U.S. border pic.twitter.com/4GxiQVzOlT
— POLITICO (@politico) January 10, 2019
Trump made the bizarre statement during his trip to the U.S.-Mexico border arguing for funding to build his promised wall. Here’s what Trump said:
“They say a wall is medieval, well so is a wheel. A wheel is older than a wall. And I looked at every single car out there, even the really expensive ones that the Secret Service uses, and believe me they are expensive. I said, do they all have wheels? Yes. Oh, I thought it was medieval. The wheel is older than the wall, you know that? And there are some things that work. You know what? A wheel works and a wall works.”
And here’s how people on Trump’s favorite social media platform responded:
The Wall of Jericho is at least 3,000 years older than the earliest archeological wheels. https://t.co/pNhMEkzpCH
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) January 10, 2019
This is a chronology error roughly on the scale of saying Instagram Stories are older than the Roman Republic.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) January 10, 2019
Human societies have only built walls for 10,000 years, and only invented the first wheels a little over 5,000 years ago. Pea brain ass dinosaurs walked the earth for like 170 million years tho
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) January 11, 2019
SPOILER: The Great Wall of China was breached multiple times by Genghis Khan.
— Jess Phoenix 🌋 (@jessphoenix2018) January 11, 2019
Trump: +1 point for identifying walls and wheels as old.
Also Trump: -1,000,000 points for failing basic history about walls.#TrumpShutdown #WallFail #History https://t.co/uzoCK9jHh8
Fact check:
— Allison Carter (@AllisonLCarter) January 10, 2019
Walls are about 1,000 years older than wheels.
The first time enclosing city wall was built around 4500 BC. The first wheel, a pottery wheel, came about 3500. They weren’t used for transport for another 300 years or so. https://t.co/KAVIThsCRu
Obligatory historian tweet: Walls are much, much older than wheels. https://t.co/XUo6xJIlp9
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) January 10, 2019
He said something about how wheels came before walls and were medieval and pic.twitter.com/pRgFbTCz4E
— Arlan 👊🏾 (@ArlanWasHere) January 10, 2019
This is, of course, wrong. Wheels appeared in the Neolithic era, around the 4th millenium BC. Walls were used for thousands of years before, roughly corresponding to the invention of agriculture.
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) January 10, 2019
"No one knows walls and wheels better than me." https://t.co/S3g6c9phiT
— Eric Zorn (@EricZorn) January 10, 2019
Wheels vs. Wall pic.twitter.com/oq9CAd77Sm
— Steve Mullis (@stevemullis) January 10, 2019
Trump in McAllen, Texas: "Many are saying that on the third day, God created Wall. And, you know, it worked. And it still works. So he did wheel, you know, soon after. Great wheels. But walls came first. Big walls from God. Good ones. Mine will be better, but His were good."
— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) January 10, 2019
Medieval??? Walls and wheels are far, far older than that. Has there ever been a president close to this level of ignorance? https://t.co/NBBXBUIYPj
— Paul Bernal (@PaulbernalUK) January 10, 2019
I fully expect him to one day say: “Imagine if the wall had wheels. It would be a wheeled wall. A hot, wheeled wall. Hot Wheels. Remember those? A lot of people don’t know Hot Wheels aren’t full size. They’re more like really small cars. Nobody knows Hot Wheels better than me.” https://t.co/tjcpgwjnLA
— Richard Roeper (@RichardERoeper) January 10, 2019
“Evidence indicates wheels were created to serve as potter's wheels around 3500 B.C.” - Smithsonian Magazine
— John Wesley Shipp (@JohnWesleyShipp) January 10, 2019
“Humans have built walls to keep others out, or in, for at least 12,000 years.” - National Geographic
Wheels on the 🚌 go round and round until the bus hits a wall https://t.co/55UwTnsWtf
— Del Quentin Wilber (@DelWilber) January 11, 2019
I’d just like to say that rocks are older than both walls and wheels and have been used as tools—great tools!—for a longer than the dinosaurs have been around. And that means the rocks probably killed the dinosaurs! Sad! But rocks are used in walls, so we must have rocks!!
— Maury Brown (@BizballMaury) January 11, 2019
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