Donald Trump's 'transgender mice' gaffe has become an instant meme

US president Donald Trump has been ripped online as his “transgender mice” gaffe becomes an instant meme.

On Tuesday (4 March), the controversial politician addressed a joint session of Congress, giving a speech riddled with with critics called “all kinds of nonsense and bulls**t”.

It was Trump’s first joint address since taking office in January and went on for more than an hour and 40 minutes, during which he praised his own stance on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives, tax cuts and trade tariffs.

But, viewers were quick to point out the moment that saw the president claim that the Biden administration had spent $8 million dollars to make “mice transgender”.

The comment drew laughs from those in the audience, as well as online, as people believed Trump appeared to be confusing it with “transgenic mice”.

Making mice transgenic is a revolutionary process by which scientists add human cells to mice to enable them to more accurately study the effect of disease on human tissues.

This includes studies that use transgenic mice to understand more about the role of hormones in illnesses such as breast cancer and asthma.

The moment quickly became a meme online.

“Mice after receiving gender affirming surgery” someone wrote.

Another baffled viewer said: “He just said ‘transgender mice’ yeah we’re not making it out.”

Following the speech, an official White House webpage attempted to claim that Trump definitely did mean to say “transgender”. They posted a list of studies they say were “to perform transgender experiments on mice”.

One study was titled: “Gonadal hormones as mediators of sex and gender influences in asthma.”

The White House claimed: “The Fake News losers at CNN immediately tried to fact check it, but President Trump was right (as usual).”

It wouldn’t be the first time Trump has slipped up on facts, after he wrongly claimed the European Union was set up to “screw the United States”. Trump also falsely said that Spain was a country in the BRICS bloc of 10 developing economies.

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