The Slatest

Boy Scouts Apologize for President

Trump at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Glen Jean, West Virginia, on Monday.

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

On Monday, Donald Trump gave a speech to 40,000 or so Boy Scouts at the organization’s “National Jamboree” in West Virginia. The speech, which you can and should read here because it is insane, included a 500-word digression about the 2016 election, snide comments about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, three separate instances of whining that the media does not properly convey the size of crowds at Trump rallies, and a truly exquisite and possibly made-up anecdote that appeared to involve a wealthy real estate developer’s sex yacht:

And he went out and bought a big yacht, and he had a very interesting life. I won’t go any more than that, because you’re Boy Scouts, so I’m not going to tell you what he did.

Should I tell you? Should I tell you?

You’re Boy Scouts, but you know life. You know life.

On Thursday, Boy Scouts of America CEO Michael Surbaugh apologized for Trump’s bad speech in a statement:

We know the past few days have been overshadowed by the remarks offered by the President of the United States. I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the [J]amboree … We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program.

Slate also extends its sincere apologies to those in the Slate family who were offended … offended that we did not work the phrase sex yacht into the headline of this post.