Trump ridiculed for claiming non-existent ‘1917’ flu ‘ended the Second World War’

President Trump rewrote history on Monday, claiming the non-existent ‘1917’ pandemic caused the end of the Second World War.

Not known for his historical accuracy, Trump again incorrectly cited both the year the pandemic occurred — it was actually 1918 — and the year WWII ended.

Speaking at a White House press briefing on Monday evening, the president got every historical fact wrong:

"The closest thing is in 1917, they say, the great pandemic. It certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people, probably ended the Second World War," Trump said. "All the soldiers were sick. That was a terrible situation."

The president was seemingly alluding to the Spanish Flu, which broke out in 1918. The first infections were identified in March of that year and lasted until 1920.

The Second World War, as we all know, ended two decades later in 1945 with the surrender of the Axis powers.

Trump was of course mercilessly mocked across social media for these blatant inaccuracies, although not many people seemed surprised. "Please read a history book," one user tweeted.

White House officials said that the president misspoke and had, in fact, been referring to WWI which began in 1914 and ended in 1918. Historians say it remains unclear, however, whether the pandemic actually ended or even changed the course of the war.

This is definitely not the first time Trump has gotten his facts wrong, whether due to actively avoiding truth-telling or out of pure carelessness. In the past week, however, he has also specifically had difficulty remembering how to pronounce words. He called Yosemite National Park “yo-semite” and pronounced Thailand as, “Thighland.”

Perhaps the president is more focused on the nearing 2020 election polling numbers, rather than worrying about getting the facts straight.