Trump Tells Nevadans How To Pronounce Nevada. Oops.

Speaking on Wednesday in Reno, Nevada, Donald Trump attempted to tell Nevadans that they didn’t know how to pronounce the name of their own state.

He got it wrong.

Trump instructed the crowd, “Heroin overdoses are surging and meth overdoses in Nevada,” then repeated the name of the state, pronouncing it “ne-VAH-da.

“Nevada,” he continued, “And you know what I said? I said, when I came out here, I said, nobody says it the other way. It has to be Nevada, right? And if you don’t say it correctly — and it didn’t happen to me, happened to a friend of mine, he was killed,” joking about the importance to Nevadans of pronouncing the name correctly. He blustered, “Nobody says it the other way,” prompting an uncomfortable silence.

Whoops.

A Nevada National Guard State Historian tweeted:

He was echoed by a national and NYC political reporter for ‪@AP:

In Reno,Trump says “Neh-VAH-da,” declares “no one says it the other way” which is met by confusion, as many folks here say it the other way

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) October 5, 2016

Senate Minority leader Harry Reid pounced on the gaffe, tweeting, “If Trump wants to come down from the penthouse his daddy bought him to lecture us on Nevada, he could at least pronounce it correctly,”

Reid continued by noting Trump’s refusal to address a the controversy surrounding the nuclear waste depository in Yucca Mountain, tweeting, “Trump told us we pronounce our state wrong; then he refused to take stance on Yucca. It’s pronounced Nev-AD-a and Yucca Mountain is dead.”

“Wait. Did @realDonaldTrump just claim he pronounced “Nevada” correctly by mispronouncing it five times?”

Nevada National Guard State Historian Emerson Marcus

Trump had been asked twice about the Yucca repository in an interview with local station KSNV, but evaded dealing with the issue; the first time he answered, “I’m very friendly with this area. I have the hotel here, I will tell you I’m going to take a look at it because so many people here are talking about it. I’ll take a look at it, and the next time you interview me, I’ll have an answer.” When the interviewer persisted by querying whether the repository could hinder tourism, Trump replied, “No. 1 is safety and it is a little too close to major population, so I will take a look at it and I will have an opinion.”