President Donald Trump on Tuesday sparked confusion among political observers when he took the stage and spoke of firemen getting picked off ladders by gunfire.
“Why doesn't anyone put a stop to this?” said one viewer on X. “The inner cities ‘are a big part of war’? Those ‘animals shooting down firemen on ladders ... we're going to take care of that’? Do you not see where this is going?”
Trump followed a speech by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at military training facility Quantico, in Virginia, and meandered across a volley of unchecked topics. Among his statements, Trump briefly addressed military recruitment, which ambled him over to what might have been the topic of low recruitment in the nation’s police departments and fire departments. Possibly.
“And by the way, the police officers — also fire department. I always put the fire department in because they're great, they're great. And I got 95 percent of their vote. … When you get 95 percent of their vote, you always have to mention them. But they're great. And they're brave in our inner cities, which we're going to be talking about because it's a big part of war now. It's a big part of war. But the firemen go up on ladders and you have people shooting at them while they're up on ladders.”
The military-based audience at Quantico is not known for delivering applause. They equally are not famous for delivering laughter, but CNN cameras did not show the expressions among spectators reacting to that particular claim.
“They're up in one of these ladders that goes way up to the sky, rescuing people. And you have animals shooting at them, shooting bullets at firemen that are way up in death’s territory,” Trump continued. “You fall off that ladder — it’s over. It's over. They don't even have to inspect you when you hit the ground. And you have people shooting bullets at them in some of these inner cities.”
“We're not going to let that happen,” Trump inserted, adding that “animals” picking off firemen from the street is “actually a big problem.”
Snopes analyzed an identical claim that Trump lobbed in March, and while harm and shooting incidents can beleaguer U.S. firemen in the line of duty, there are no records of this happening as they are scaling ladders into a burning building.
“None of these reports mention the firefighters being attacked while on a ladder putting out a fire,” Snopes noted.
“wtf is he talking about??” posted another commenter on X. “… Who’s shooting at firefighters on ladders?!”
“Mental decline. How are we not talking about Trump’s mental decline?” posted still another X critic.
“Imagine having to sit through this slop as a career leader in the military. Yikes,” said a commenter, speaking on Trump’s audience.