US election 2016: 'What is Aleppo?' asks presidential candidate

The former New Mexico governor and Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson has revealed a surprising lack of foreign policy knowledge on American television.

Asked on MSNBC what he would do, if elected president, about Aleppo, the city at the centre of the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis, Johnson earnestly asked: "What is Aleppo?"

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After explaining to him what the city was, Johnson replied "Okay, got it."

He then went on to say that the US should form a partnership with Russia to diplomatically improve the situation.

"With regard to Syria, I do think that it's a mess," he said.

The stumble could be a "serious blow" to Johnson’s campaign, says the New York Times, "just as he is making a final push to improve his standing in the polls."

As the Libertarian candidate, Johnson has "ramped up his campaigning efforts in recent weeks, working to build enough national support to earn a spot on the general election debate stage alongside Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump," says Politico. In order to do so, he needs to reach 15 per cent in a series of major national polls but has been hovering around the 10 per cent mark until this point.

The gaffe was quickly seized upon by social media.

But it gets worse. In an interview after the event Johnson seemed even more tangled up in his own words, with predictably excruciating results.

Perhaps worse still, a few commentators even drew parallels with a certain other presidential candidate.