Trump Kept Calling "Customs & Border Protection" The Wrong Name While Praising It

On Monday, during a tribute to border enforcement and immigration agents, President Trump called Customs and Border Protection the wrong name throughout his speech. It left people watching the "Salute to the Heroes" event confused, and news outlets immediately picked up on it. Bustle has reached out to the White House for comment on the acronym mistake.

Trump's speech praised the success of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents. But some of that messaging may have been lost as Trump kept referring to CBP as "CBC." The White House's transcript of the speech acknowledges this error, placing [sic] next to his use of "CBC" on its first use.

"We’re here today to salute the incredibly brave patriots who keep America safe: the heroes of ICE and CBC [sic]," the transcript of the president's introduction reads.

Just two sentences later, Trump again calls the CBP "CBC" as he thanks the vice president.

"I want to thank a true and loyal friend of ICE and CBC, Mike Pence," Trump said. The president then references the agency as "CBC" again in thanking the different arms of Homeland Security before talking about drug seizures and terrorism.

"Over the last year — these are incredible numbers — ICE and CBC seized more than 2.8 million pounds of illicit and deadly narcotics," Trump told the audience. "Every day, on average, CBC prevents 10 known or suspected terrorists from entering the United States. What a job you’ve done."

According to the transcript, Trump calls it "CBC" twice more, before ending the speech. The blunder with the acronym is strange, but even stranger when it was apparently spelled out for the president. According to The Hill, Jennifer Jacobs, a White House reporter for Bloomberg, tweeted that the speechwriter wasn't to blame; Trump's teleprompter actually correctly referred to the agency as CBP in the script. It was Trump who decided to call it "CBC."

While "CBC" didn't fit the context of the president's speech on Monday, the acronym does refer to actual organizations. Both the Congressional Black Caucus and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation are known as the CBC.

Reporters covering the event expressed confusion.

Another looped back to the White House's transcript, noting that the president failed to mention the correct acronym at all.

One CNBC reporter not only called out the false agency name, she called out the inaccuracy of his statistic claiming that border patrol agents prevents 10 "known or suspected terrorists" from coming into the country each day.

According to Vox, the tribute honoring the nation's border enforcement front-line agents was held to rally up support ahead of the midterm elections in November. The event was likely intended to highlight the hardline policies of the Trump administration, its perceived successes, and to encourage voters to vote for Republican candidates so that those perceived successes could continue. The political strategy might have resonated with some, but for many, it's just bizarre that the president would hold an event to honor an organization only to say its name wrong throughout it all.