Donald Trump sparked a fresh wave of disgust and disbelief in the United States on Wednesday, 1 July, after joking on stage in North Dakota that he and his sons Don Jr and Eric would have a ‘threesome’ in connection with the Medal of Honor.
For context, the former president, now 80, was speaking at the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, an event meant to honour Roosevelt’s legacy and the military heroism that runs through that family’s history. Instead, the evening slid, in familiar Trump fashion, into a rambling monologue about his own achievements and supposed greatness, capped by a line that many listeners plainly found stomach‑churning.
Donald Trump’s ‘Threesome’ Remark At Roosevelt Library Event
During his speech, Donald Trump praised Theodore Roosevelt and his eldest son, Theodore Roosevelt Jr, noting that both were awarded the Medal of Honor in wartime, one for service in the Spanish‑American War and the other during the Second World War. Trump then contrasted that father‑and‑son pair with General Douglas MacArthur and his father, Arthur MacArthur Jr, who also both received the United States’ highest military award.
‘Except for Arthur and Douglas MacArthur, they’re the only father and son pair to receive our nation’s highest military award for courage above and beyond the call of duty,’ Trump told the crowd, according to the remarks reported from the event.
At that point he turned to look at his own adult sons, seated in the audience. ‘Now, as I see my two beautiful sons sitting there, I think I’m going to give one to myself, one to them, and we’ll have a threesome,’ he said, apparently joking that he and his children would, in effect, manufacture their own father‑sons Medal of Honor set.
He went on to elaborate, saying he would ‘pick out one of the two’ and give them a Congressional Medal of Honor ‘for their genius at hunting’, while he would be awarded one ‘for taking on Russia, Russia, Russia, or something’, so that ‘we’ll have a third pair now’.
There was no suggestion from Trump that he misspoke or realised how the word ‘threesome’ might land with a modern audience. He simply moved on, as he has so often done after these off‑key lines, leaving the clean‑up to his supporters and staff.
Social Media Backlash Brands Trump ‘Gross’ And ‘Demented’
The reaction online was immediate and brutal. Clips of Donald Trump’s ‘threesome’ remark circulated widely on X, where critics accused him of being unfit for office and, more bluntly, of being ‘gross’.
‘Trump is talking about his sons and mentions a “threesome”? The man is not well,’ one user posted, capturing the mix of disbelief and exasperation that has become a familiar response to his stage patter.
Another person simply wrote, ‘He is demented,’ while a separate account added, ‘He’s so obscenely gross!’ One commentator tried to inject gallows humour into the moment, asking: ‘Has anyone ever died from being completely grossed out? Honest question.’
None of those comments can be independently verified beyond what is visible on social platforms, so IBTimes UK cannot vouch for the identity or expertise of those posting them. What they do show, however, is how quickly Trump’s latest one‑liner turned into yet another viral storm, and how little patience remains among his critics for what used once to be dismissed as mere off‑colour banter.
The Trump campaign had not issued a formal response to the backlash at the time of writing. There was also no public clarification from his sons, who are used to being fodder in their father’s riffs and, at this stage, rarely bother to explain them.
Donald Trump’s Long‑Running Obsession With Awards
If the ‘threesome’ comment sounded oddly preoccupied with medals, that is not new territory for Donald Trump. The former reality television star has repeatedly sought high‑profile honours and symbolic tributes, often in ways that have attracted ridicule.
The article recounts how he has publicly angled for the Nobel Peace Prize, tried to secure a statue of himself, and at one point even accepted a bogus title dubbing him the ‘Champion of Coal’. None of these grand gestures were bestowed by any recognised international committee or US federal body, but they fed into the image he seems keen to project, that of a man whose greatness has been unfairly overlooked.
Trump was also criticised for putting his own name on a building connected to the Kennedy Center. That branding has since been removed following a court order, a detail his opponents now cite as proof that his appetite for self‑glorification routinely crashes into legal and ethical limits.
In 2025, he promoted an AI‑generated video that imagined a future Gaza rebuilt around a giant golden statue of himself. According to accounts of the clip, the main figure loomed over a street while smaller gold statues of Trump were available to buy at a nearby hotel. ‘This man is deluded,’ one social media user wrote at the time, in another of those short, sharp verdicts that tends to stick.
So when he floated the idea of effectively awarding himself and his sons the Medal of Honor, many critics saw it as just the latest, slightly mad extension of a long‑running obsession.
Pattern Of Bizarre Stage Remarks From Donald Trump
The North Dakota controversy slots neatly into a wider pattern. Trump has been dropping jaw‑twitching remarks on stage for years, and his recent speeches suggest that the habit is not fading with age.
In May, speaking at the US Coast Guard Academy, he appeared particularly taken by the physical appearance of some graduating cadets. At one point, he invited a male cadet who had finished at the top of his class to join him on stage.
‘I wanna see this guy,’ Trump said, before shaking the young man’s hand and declaring, ‘I hate good‑looking men.’ The line drew laughs from some in the audience, though others online later found the whole thing slightly off.
He then turned his attention to a second graduate who, he said, had ‘earned a perfect score on every fitness test’. ‘This guy must be something. I think we’ll have to invite him up. I want to check him out,’ Trump told the crowd.
As the cadet walked up, Trump reacted, ‘Whoa! We’re not gonna fight with him. I’m not fighting him. This is not UFC, please understand that, Thomas.’ He then urged people to look at the cadet’s build, saying: ‘Look at the muscles on this guy. Just hit him in the shoulder. I hurt my hand. It’s like hitting a rock.’
Supporters tend to write off these asides as showman stuff, the unfiltered patter of a politician who made his name on television and never quite left the studio behind. Opponents see something else: a man whose judgement and sense of boundaries are, at the very least, frayed.
Whether the ‘threesome’ remark shifts any votes is another question. American politics has absorbed a lot of Trumpian shock over the past decade. But even in a jaded media environment, there are moments that cut through, and talking lightly about a sexualised ‘threesome’ with your ‘beautiful’ sons at a presidential library event is very much one of them.
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