Trump Spokeswoman Blames Obama for Humayun Khan’s Death. But Gets Her History Wrong

Donald Trump’s camp has tried to deflect blame in recent days after the Republican candidate cast aspersions on the parents of a fallen Muslim American soldier, Capt. Humayun Khan. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have condemned him for disrespecting a Gold Star family, but the Trump campaign is still trying to save face without apologizing.

In an interview with Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, Trump’s spokeswoman Katrina Pierson tried to blame President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Capt. Khan’s death, saying “it was under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that changed the rules of engagement that probably cost his life.”

But Khan died in Iraq in 2004—five years before Obama took office—while George W. Bush was president. Blitzer subsequently ran a fact-check on air, and social media users coined a new hashtag to mock the spokeswoman: #KatrinaPiersonHistory.

Pierson tried to get in on the action by using the hashtag herself, in a slightly different context: