---
title: "There’s a problem with this Trump tweet on the Kurds in Syria, and it ain’t ‘Mark Esperanto’"
description: "Donald Trump's tweet comes as Defense Secretary Mark Esper made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, and according to reporters accompanying him, it wasn't even close to what he said"
date: "2019-10-20"
modified: "2019-10-20"
authors:
  - name: "Jared Keller"
    job_title: "Former Managing Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/trump-mark-esperanto-tweet/"
categories:
  - "Analysis"
  - "Around the World"
  - "Middle East"
  - "News"
  - "United States"
tags:
  - "central command"
  - "donald trump"
  - "the white house"
---

# There’s a problem with this Trump tweet on the Kurds in Syria, and it ain’t ‘Mark Esperanto’

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/22018176-1.jpg>)

Mark Esper is the third person after James Mattis and Patrick Shanahan to helm the Pentagon since Donald Trump became president, and he's apparently not making much of an impression on the commander-and-chief.

On Sunday, Trump sent a
*very* real tweet on "Secretary Esperanto," which is either a reference to a [constructed international language developed more than 130 years ago](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto>) and [only spoken on the PA system in](<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/>)*[Gattaca](<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/>)* or an egregious instance of autocorrect.

But the whole 'Esperanto' thing isn't the biggest issue with this Sunday morning dose of awful. Indeed, Trump's tweet
[came](<https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/esper-makes-unannounced-visit-afghanistan>) as Esper made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan amid U.S. efforts to restart potential peace talks with the Taliban, and according to reporters accompanying him there, *this isn't even close* to what Esper said.

Here's Reuters correspondent Idrees Ali:

https://twitter.com/idreesali114/status/1185911236036157440

Same thing from Wall Street Journal correspondent Nancy Youssef, who [reported](<https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-troops-leaving-syria-will-be-assigned-to-iraq-defense-chief-says-11571542784>) on Saturday night that all of the 1,000 U.S. service members ordered to leave northeastern Syria "will move to western Iraq and will conduct U.S. operations" against ISIS there and are not "coming home."

https://twitter.com/nancyayoussef/status/1185914303590699008

This is the second time in three days that Trump has mentioned oil when nobody else has. On Friday, the president had declared that the U.S. has "secured the Oil" in the Middle East amid the ongoing political fallout from his withdrawal order and subsequent Turkish invasion of northern Syria, which critics argue are a betrayal of the Pentagon's Kurdish partners in the fight against ISIS there.

Uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?

## Author
Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications.

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