What are the other seven?

[Мастер]

This one is a bit old (fifteen years), but it just came to my attention again.

The fact that it’s been covered up so successfully for fifteen years has me concerned.

The US flag has fifty stars. Government records, books, on-line references all refer to the fifty American states.

However, while campaigning for the presidency in 2008, Barack Obama slipped up, and mentioned that he had now been to 57 states.

The powers that be must have gotten to him, because he never repeated this mistake. However, reporters caught it, and it is too “out there” to be suppressed fully. The Obama campaign tried to brush it off, saying he was tired and made a careless misstatement.

But I want to know.

What are the other seven states? Where are they?

Why are they being covered up? What is going on there?

Are there just these extra seven, or are there even more secret states that Obama hasn’t been to?

Fifteen years on, and we are no closer to an answer.

[Lance]

England?
Canada?
Australia?

[Richard A]

I suspect that, being a lawyer, what he meant was all 57 jurisdictions. I have great fun teaching this to my students - although Obama possibly forgot that the 57 includes one (no. 1 or no. 57, depending on how you see it) that covers all of the other 56. Let's go with the all-encompassing one being no. 57.

Nos. 1-50: the 50 states that we all agree on.
Nos. 51-55: the 5 permanently inhabited US territories. "Permanently inhabited" means not including places like Diego Garcia, which is solely a military base, or the US's chunk of Antarctica. 4 of them are Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa - I can never remember the 5th, but there is one.
No. 56: District of Columbia (i.e. Washington, DC) - a stand-alone District that is neither a state nor a territory.
No. 57: The Federal jurisdiction, comprising the laws and legal system that apply to the entire country, as set out in the US Constitution.

[g-one]

Nos. 51-55: the 5 permanently inhabited US territories. "Permanently inhabited" means not including places like Diego Garcia, which is solely a military base, or the US's chunk of Antarctica. 4 of them are Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa - I can never remember the 5th, but there is one.

Seems the 5th is Northern Mariana Islands.