Boy Scout parents furious about Trump’s ‘offensive’ Jamboree speech

Jul 25, 2017

Monday evening was the Jamboree of the Boy Scouts of America, which is held every four years, and President Donald Trump spoke at the event.

Although Trump started out the speech by saying “Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts?”, the rambling speech covered all sorts of hot-button topics, from calling Washington a “cesspool” to lambasting Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

For example, he couldn’t resist a jab about crowd size: “Boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say it’s about 200 people. It looks like about 45,000 people. You set a record today. You set a record.”

Nor could he stay away from talking about the election of 2016: “Do we remember that date? Was that a beautiful date? What a date.”

He also spoke about his electoral victory and lauded a few states that he’d won in particular, saying, “Wisconsin hadn’t been won in many, many years by a Republican. But we go to Wisconsin, and we had tremendous crowds. And I’d leave these massive crowds. I’d say, ‘Why are we going to lose this state?'”

— Transgender kids can now join the Boy Scouts —

“So I have to tell you what we did, in all fairness, is an unbelievable tribute to you and all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for Make America Great Again,” he told the crowd filled with Boy Scouts, meaning most of the audience was not, in fact, old enough to vote.

After the event, parents were furious because of the political overtones of the speech, prompting the Boy Scouts to respond by saying the organization was “wholly non-partisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy” and adding that the invitation for the president to speak was a “long-standing tradition and is in no way an endorsement of any political party or specific policies.”

But parents took to the Boy Scouts of America Facebook page to lambast the speech and the organization for allowing it to happen.

Jude Nevans Cleaver wrote: “I am the proud mother of a former scout who was sheltered from that pack of lies speech at the Jamboree. Done with scouts after you felt the need to have my kid listen to a liar stroke his ego on our time.”

Debbie S. Milligan said: “Wow, this is what you are teaching the Boy Scouts? To be disrespectful to a Past President. One that had been a Boy Scout, unlike the current President. Completely disrespectful!”

You can also check out some of the best Twitter reactions below.

Who at @boyscouts thought that having an unpredictable, ranting lunatic speak to children was a good idea? I'd pull my son out. #Shame

— Lori 🗽 (@seagal_lori) July 24, 2017

https://twitter.com/Leila_A_Rice/status/889676297852604417

As a Scout leader, my stomach is in knots about what Trump did today. If you haven't watched it yet, don't. It's downright icky.

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) July 25, 2017