A simple slip of phrasing from Donald Trump has once again taken on a life of its own, and now fans are questioning his intelligence and how well he retains information even more.
The latest frenzy circles around an alleged verbal gaffe suggesting the president didn’t know how many states the U.S. actually has. A rumor claiming Trump once said he was speaking to “hundreds of governors” is back in rotation, fueling jokes after he somehow multiplied America’s 50 governors into the triple digits.
The claim stems from a White House pandemic briefing that’s being recirculated on social media, where critics are once again clowning the idea that Trump could make such a massive numerical mistake.
Threads and X users wasted no time piling on.
“Trump said, ‘Hundreds of Governors are calling me.’ We only have 50. Think about that. Take all the time you need,” one person wrote.
Another joked, “Math & numbers are not Trump’s strong suit. He’s constantly embarrassing himself and doesn’t even realize it!”
Someone else tried to be helpful, noting, “55 actually, but yeah not hundreds. American Samoa, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands also have governors.”
In 2024, the claim floated with one saying, “He apparently has no idea how many states we have in this country,” while another person claimed, “That was a misunderstanding. He said ‘governesses.’”
He apparently has no idea how many states we have in this country.
— Roger Errington (@rerrington1) August 25, 2024
But despite the avalanche of memes and mockery, this specific rumor has been debunked more times than fans care to admit.
What Trump actually said on April 13, 2020, according to Reuters, was: “We could give you hundreds of clips like that … from governors — including Democrat governors … We could give you hundreds of clips just like that.”
He was talking about video clips praising his administration, not claiming the country had a few hundred governors.
And to make matters clearer, in a March 2020 interview with Fox and Friends, Trump spelled it out plainly: “I get on calls … we’ll have all 50 governors plus … we have some territories also, but we have 50 governors.”
Still, the rumor refuses to die — in part because it fits neatly into an ongoing pattern that critics say exposes Trump’s shaky relationship with basic knowledge and history.
The situation echoes a popular joke from comedian Katt Williams, who roasted Trump for supposedly saying he spoke to the “president of Puerto Rico” and the “president of the Virgin Islands.”
@furoc1 #kattwilliamscomedy #trump #puertorico ♬ original sound – FuRoc Free
Williams used the moment to skewer Trump’s grasp of the mechanics of government, pointing out that the U.S. president is, in fact, the president of those territories. But fact-checkers later confirmed that the quotes Williams relied on weren’t real; they came from a satirical online post that spread online.
While the “hundreds of governors” claim is fiction, Trump has offered up enough real-life blunders to keep internet detectives busy.
During his 2019 Fourth of July speech, he infamously declared that the Revolutionary War-era Continental Army “took over the airports,” a claim that baffled historians and casual observers alike since airplanes wouldn’t be invented for well over a century later.
TRUMP: “Then I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”
(Article 2 does not in fact empower the president to do whatever they want.) pic.twitter.com/qIFP1AbHw6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2019
And perhaps most eyebrow-raising of all is his repeated insistence that Article II of the Constitution gives him the power to “do whatever I want as president,” a statement that directly contradicts the checks and balances every U.S. student is taught is social studies before leaving elementary school.
The “hundreds of governors” claim has no basis in reality, but it still goes viral because, as critics note, it sounds exactly like him. As one person summed it up while the resurfaced quote made another lap across social feeds: “He just be saying stuff and ppl keep believing him.”
Trump has a documented pattern of claiming credit for, or invention of, common words and phrases and word-slips, including mispronouncing “acetaminophen” and boasting about inventing words like “groceries.” Last week, the former reality star stumbled during a White House speech promoting the “Fostering the Future” initiative, repeatedly mixing up the words adapt and adopt.
Trump confuses the word “adapt” with “adopt” 3 times in a row pic.twitter.com/pgLaS8o5BV
— FactPost (@factpostnews) November 13, 2025
His remarks drew immediate ridicule online — not just for the mix-up itself but for his apparent obliviousness as he plowed ahead with the error. Social media lit up with memes and scathing comments, with some critics calling it yet another hint at his declining cognitive sharpness.
In a speech about drug-price reform, Trump asserted he’d coined the word “equalize” — a term actually in use since at least the 1500s, per Merriam‑Webster.
And with a long list of documented historical flubs, constitutional mix-ups, and on-camera misfires behind him, many aren’t ready to dismiss that sentiment anytime soon.
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