On October 23rd, 2019, President Donald Trump was giving a speech in Pittsburg when talk of the border wall came up. With much enthusiasm, Trump told his fans, “We’re building a wall in Colorado. We’re building a beautiful wall. A big one that really works, that you can’t get over, that you can’t get under.” That’s great and all, but does Colorado really need a wall separating us from New Mexico? Who’s going to break it to the president that, although New Mexico has Mexico in its name, it’s actually part of the Union? Names can be misleading, I get it, but I would hope that our president has at least a decent understanding of American geography.

The comedy was not lost on many politicians. Governor Jared Polis tweeted “Well this is awkward… Colorado doesn’t border Mexico. Good thing Colorado now offers free full day kindergarten so our kids can learn basic geography [sic].” Diana DeGette, the representative of Colorado’s first district, also commented on the mixup, tweeting “Is NEW Mexico gonna pay for it?”.

Just as any dignified president does when he makes a mistake, Trump also sent a tweet:

“(Kiddingly) We’re building a Wall in Colorado”(then stated, “we’re not building a Wall in Kansas but they get the benefit of the Wall we’re building on the Border”) refered to people in the very packed auditorium, from Colorado & Kansas, getting the benefit of the Border Wall! [sic].” 

This is Trump’s actual tweet, grammar mistakes and all, telling the American public that they misinterpreted his speech. Come on, if Trump really thought that Colorado and Kansas would benefit from the wall, he would have said that. Instead, he said “We’re building a wall in Colorado. We’re building a beautiful wall. A big one that really works, that you can’t get over, that you can’t get under.” He then followed this later by saying “And we’re not building a wall in Kansas, but they get the benefit of the walls that we just mentioned.” We all know that Trump had no idea that Colorado doesn’t border Mexico.

While many people, myself included, find this situation hilarious, I’m also very concerned that our president and many of his supporters don’t know basic American geography. When Trump said he was going to build a wall in Colorado, many Pennsylvania Trump supporters began to cheer. The fact that Colorado does not border Mexico was lost on much of his audience.

Maybe I’m stuck in the old days, but I like my presidents to be generally informed on basic subjects like foreign affairs, economics and domestic issues. Politics is hard, staying politically aware is hard, but geography? Geography isn’t hard. It takes two seconds to look at a map and see that Colorado is actually in the middle of the U.S. We are bordered by four states. Yes, one is named New Mexico, but it is no longer connected with the other Mexico, so I think we’re safe.