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Letter: President should study up before traveling

Queen Elizabeth II speaks with President Donald Trump during an event to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Portsmouth, England Wednesday, June 5, 2019. World leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump are gathering Wednesday on the south coast of England to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Dear President Trump,

The next time you visit a foreign country, you might consider doing a bit of research about said country beforehand. For example, when you recently visited England to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, you said that Britain had many different names, and you seemed a bit confused about it all.

It is possible, as I'm sure you know, to find background information on a certain country via the internet simply by googling your questions. Had you done so, you would have discovered that England, Great Britain and The United Kingdom are three different entities. There's the country of England, bordered by Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, with all three making up Great Britain, the world's eighth largest island.

Then add Northern Ireland to the equation (southern Ireland is its own little republic, formed in 1922, thus dividing the island of Ireland) and you have the United Kingdom. Having that information at hand would have helped make you appear more knowledgeable during some of your interviews there.

As you are the so-called leader of the free world, it is less embarrassing to the American people if you know a bit of world geography when visiting a foreign country, thereby reinforcing the notion that the USA is indeed great.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Linda Marion, Millcreek

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