After his illiterate meltdown, Donald Trump gets called out by unexpected source
We couldn’t care less that Donald Trump has such difficulties with spelling, grammar, and usage, and made-up words, he often comes off as at least semi-illiterate. Those are the least of Trump’s flaws. But it’s remarkable that, a year and a half after taking office, and having had the nearly limitless resources of the Oval Office at his fingertips, he still isn’t bothering to show his tweets to someone who can read and write before he posts them. His latest Twitter ramblings went so far off the spelling and usage deep end, he got called out from an unexpected corner.
Donald Trump’s mistakes yesterday were, in hindsight, almost too on the nose. He attacked Harley-Davidson, while misspelling “motorcycle” as two words. He called the Washington Post a “disgrace” but misspelled “disgrace.” We suspect Trump may have been purposely making a fool of himself in an attempt at distracting from the sex abuse scandal that had just swallowed up his close political ally, Republican Congressman Jim Jordan. But whether this was an act, or truly a sign that Trump’s cognitive abilities are further failing, Trump quickly got his comeuppance.
The tweet that got Trump into trouble went like this: “After having written many best selling books, and somewhat priding myself on my ability to write, it should be noted that the Fake News constantly likes to pour over my tweets looking for a mistake. I capitalize certain words only for emphasis, not b/c they should be capitalized!” In case you missed it, the correct phrase is “pore over” and not “pour over.” He literally made a mistake while chastising us for looking for his mistakes. That’s when the dictionary spoke up and got involved. No, really.
Merriam-Webster dictionary posted this tweet on its official verified account:
‘pore over’ “to read or study very carefully”
‘pour over’ “to make expensive coffee”
‘comb over’ “to comb hair from the side of the head to cover the bald spot”
When you’re surrounded by like seventeen advisers who could read over your tweets before you post them, and when you could hire an army of a thousand proofreaders at the stroke of a pen, and you’re still blowing it as badly as Donald Trump is, it stands out. When you’re blowing it so badly that even the dictionary is trolling you, it’s a sign of trouble. But again, these particular spelling and usage errors were just too perfectly cute. We think he was trying to distract us from the Jim Jordan mess.
