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'Is this a confession?': Donald Trump's verbal slip unleashes flood of jokes and memes

The viral moment occurred as he continued to criticize the 2020 election results during a speech in Iowa on December 2

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA: Former President Donald Trump stirred a wave of reactions and memes following an apparent verbal misstep during a campaign stop in Iowa. The viral moment occurred as he continued to criticize the 2020 election results on Saturday, December 2.

Accidental admission or verbal misstep by Trump?

During the event in Cedar Rapids, Trump addressed the crowd, stating, "In 2016, you voted to stand up to those liars, looters, losers, crooks, and creeps. You elected an outsider as your president, and it was about America first. We want to put our country first; they haven't done that in a long time, but we did it for four years, and that's why we did so well."

The former president, currently a frontrunner for the Republican nomination, is facing an election subversion case in Washington D.C. after being indicted in August on four counts related to allegations of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump has maintained his innocence in response to these charges.

"That's why it was one of the great presidencies, they say. Even the opponents sometimes say he did very well, I have to say. 'Take it back,' they scream. His people say 'Take it back.' From that day on, our opponents, and we had a lot of opponents, but we've been waging an all-out war on American democracy," Trump declared, unintentionally fueling speculation and online discussions.

The controversial segment of the speech, where Trump mentioned the "all-out war" on American democracy, quickly went viral on social media, particularly on X (formerly Twitter).

Acyn, a researcher for the "pro-democracy" MeidasTouch Network, uploaded the clip, which amassed over 1.8 million views by Sunday morning, December 3.

Social media reactions on Trump's comment

The post garnered a barrage of reactions.

"Possibly the first time in his miserable existence that he told the truth," one responded.

"We know. That's why we are still here doing what we can do to try and stop him," another wrote. 

"Oops. That accidentally came out true," a comment read.

"So is this a confession[?] Bc we already KNOW that," someone else added.

"He said the quiet part out loud," another chimed in.

What Donald Trump actually said

However, a fact-check from Snopes presented an alternative interpretation.

Snopes based its judgment on both the audio track and the context of Trump's remark, asserting that he did not say that he was "waging all-out war on American democracy." The fact-checker declared that Trump was accusing his political opponents of waging war on democracy, not admitting to doing so himself.

Here's the complete transcript based on C-SPAN footage from the event:

For decades, you watched as a corrupt political class in our nation's capitol looted your money, trampled on your dignity and pushed their radical agenda into every aspect of your lives. You know it very well. But in 2016, you voted to stand up to those liars, losers, crooks and creeps, and you elected an outsider as your president. And it was about America first. We want to put our country first. They haven't done that in a long time, but we did it for four years and that's why we did so well. That's why it was one of the great presidencies, they say. Even the opponents sometimes say that he did very well, I have to say, "Take it back," his people scream. His people say "Take it back." From that day on our opponents, and we had a lot of opponents, but we've been waging an all-out war in American democracy. You look at what they've been doing, and becoming more and more extreme and repressive. They have just waged an all-out war with each passing day.

Meanwhile, an unedited version of the speech shared by the Trump-supporting Right Side Broadcasting Network seemed to capture Trump attempting to correct himself shortly after the gaffe, Newsweek reported.