The Trump administration is displaying a massive poster that apparently misquotes Theodore Roosevelt ahead of America’s big birthday.
The Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building — which houses the Office of Personnel Management — has a banner on the side of it featuring the former president’s portrait and the following quote attributed to him: “Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.”
While the quote is linked to Roosevelt on Goodreads and it’s traveled around the internet in the form of various motivational posters (including some tying it to Napoleon Bonaparte), The Washington Post has pointed to scholars who say there’s no evidence the former president delivered the words.
“What I can say for certain is that the quote did not originate with Theodore Roosevelt,” said Michael Patrick Cullinane, co-director of the Theodore Roosevelt Center, who noted that he plans to add the “courage” line to an online list of quotes that have been inaccurately attributed to Roosevelt.
The Post’s reporting arrived just days after Steve Herman — executive director at the University of Mississippi’s Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation — spotted the poster on the OPM building while attending a nearby event in the nation’s capital.
Herman, a former senior White House correspondent at Voice of America and a self-described fan of Roosevelt, called the misquote “inexcusable” and “actually kind of sad, but not surprising.”
“The federal government, as far as things like American history and literacy and civics, should set an example,” he stressed.
McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management, told the Post that the quote “is commonly attributed to Roosevelt and captures the spirit of the federal workforce.”
“As excited as we are about America 250, it’s surprising the Washington Post has taken such an interest in our small agency’s building banners. Slow news day?” Pinover wrote.
The Washington Post via Getty Images
The Roosevelt banner appears alongside a separate Freedom 250-themed display that adorns another part of the building.
Freedom 250 is a Trump-backed group that claims to be a “non-partisan organization” and has seemingly seized efforts to plan events around America’s 250th birthday (this includes the Great American State Fair concert series, and the name was used to promote the White House UFC event on Sunday).
The group is not to be confused with the congressional America 250 that was tasked with promoting the country’s big birthday.
HuffPost has reached out to Freedom 250 for comment about the Roosevelt display.
