Trump’s Attempt to Confront a Leader Backfires as the Internet Catches the Grade-School Mistake His Team Scrambled to Hide
Once again, President Donald Trump showed his difficulty with words he may or may not understand. This time, his confusion took place in a weekend message to his diehard online followers.
Trump, 79, set out to spotlight former U.S. Navy Commander Kirk Lippold in a Truth Social post on Nov. 30 — but his message quickly drifted off into something else entirely once readers realized the message came with extra “features” that had nothing to do with the retired the Navy officer.
Within minutes, his familiar pattern of typos quietly hijacked the moment and sent the comment section in a very different direction.
According to The Daily Beast, Trump started his Truth Social rant with “Ther [sic] are laws that effect [sic] our nation,” clearly misspelling “there.” He also incorrectly used “effect” instead of “affect” in the post.
Trump deleted the error-ridden communication and returned to the app with a cleaned-up version. “There” was finally spelled accurately and he replaced “effect” with “impact” too.
“There are laws that impact our Nation. Read Title 18, Chapter 115, Section 2387, ‘Whoever with the intent to interfere, impair, influence the loyalty, moral or discipline of the military and Naval Forces,……to be fined or imprisoned up to 10 years.’ Commander Kirk Lippold, U.S. Navy, Ret. This is right on point. DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE!!!” Trump exclaimed on the social media platform while failing to correct another error, spelling morale in the original statute as “moral.”
A screenshot of Trump’s original, mistake-filled Truth Social post made its way to X, where one person pointed out, “He caught it and corrected it about 5 minutes after he posted it.”
“Trump does not know the difference between morale and moral,” noted another person.
One commentator refused to give Trump credit for the correction, instead attributing the grammar changes to his staff by asking, “He, or his minions?” Similarly, one individual tweeted, “Staffer caught.”
Someone simply added, “Spelling is hard.” In a more brutal takedown, one emphatic Trump detractor declared, “He’s an idiot. A supremely talented con-man, but a total idiot.”
“The verb affect would be correct. Effect is mostly used as a noun. Did Trump make it past 5th grade?” a critic sarcastically wondered.
Trump’s outburst followed a video released last month by six Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former Navy captain and NASA astronaut, reminding service members of their duty to refuse illegal orders. He dubbed them the “Seditious Six” and claimed their actions were “punishable” by extreme measures.
Throughout the second Trump administration, which began in January, the sitting commander in chief of the American military has had several instances of showing he does not have the best grasp of the English language.
In May, Trump claimed “equalizing” was a new word during a speech about lowering drug prices in America. One look at Merriam-Webster’s dictionary made it clear that the term has been in use since at least 1599.
The president then went viral in September for struggling to pronounce “acetaminophen” while holding a highly controversial White House briefing, where he shocked the nation by suggesting pregnant women should not take Tylenol because of an unproven link to autism in children.
Following Zohran Mamdani’s unexpectedly successful New York City mayoral campaign win centered around an affordable economic platform, Trump embraced the word “affordability” in November. Like in the past, the MAGA leader insisted affordability was uncommon and described it as a “new word.”
Trump’s tendency to make gaffes continued in November when he repeatedly confused “adopt” with “adapt” as he introduced first lady Melania Trump’s “Fostering the Future” initiative during an executive order signing ceremony at the White House.
“Christians and more, think of this, more than twice as likely [to] foster care, they’ll adopt the general population,” Trump said at the press conference, before adding, “They adopt [sic] to it so easily. When they get out, they adopt [sic] to it just like it’s become second nature. It’s amazing.”
Back in 2024, Trump often talked about “groceries” as an unheard-of word that had just begun sweeping the country like a brand-new meme. He even linked the ordinary household term to his election win against then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
