One of the greatest war films of all time is Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.” The film, which has numerous famous scenes and dialogue, is a classic among not just war film fans but cinephiles, in general. And one of the greatest lines in the film, and perhaps all of film, is when Robert Duvall says, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” But if you’re Donald Trump, that line isn’t exactly how you remember it.
As we begin to learn more about the odd behind-the-scenes drama of the White House, stories are emerging of some of Donald Trump’s biggest snafus as President. One of those happened early in his presidency, when he was attending an event with various veterans from the military. When he went around the room, asking the attendees to explain how the White House could help with their causes, the discussion was derailed when a Vietnam veteran asked if the administration could help with access to benefits to help those Vietnam vets who were poisoned by the chemical Agent Orange.
According to a report by the Daily Beast, that’s when the President confused the attendees by saying “That’s taken care of.” When the veterans tried to explain that there hasn’t been enough progress surrounding the issue, Trump cut them off to ask them if Agent Orange was “that stuff from that movie.”
Over the course of the ensuing conversation, it apparently became apparent the President was trying to think of the “stuff” from “Apocalypse Now,” which was clearly, from Duvall’s line, napalm.
Once some people in attendance explained to Trump that it was, in fact, napalm and not Agent Orange, that wasn’t enough, and he said, “no, I think it’s that stuff from that movie.”
He then began to go around the room to take an impromptu poll of the veterans asking if it was napalm or Agent Orange. Eventually, he made it all the way around to the attendee who asked about Agent Orange in the first place. When the veteran was asked, he replied to Trump that it was napalm, but that he wasn’t a fan of the film because of how it depicted the war.
In typical Trump fashion, the President ignored his explanation and chalked it up to sour grapes, saying, “Well, I think you just didn’t like the movie.”
Unfortunately, there’s no real conclusion to the story, as the rest of the meeting was just as scattershot as the beginning. It also remains unclear if Trump actually knows the difference between Agent Orange or napalm, or if he’s actually seen “Apocalypse Now.” Either way, he felt it was appropriate to explain to actual Vietnam veterans that they were wrong about what Agent Orange is, and that’s pretty incredible in itself.