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Weird5 min(s) read
Published 12:28 11 Dec 2018 GMT
These days, most of us are pretty deep into social media. It may not all be the same platforms as before (RIP Bebo), but most of us end up using some form of it. Twitter is a popular choice for both people looking for dumb jokes, ridiculous memes, as well as endless arguments with anonymous trolls. Strangely enough, it's also where the President of the United States spends a lot of his time.
And, like many of us, he makes typos from time to time. However, Donald Trump's mistakes (and other eccentricities) on the app are seen by a lot more people and could potentially have a huge impact on the world - so it's all the more bizarre when he gets it wrong.
Trump has been defending himself on Twitter recently, after allegations were made relating to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. On Friday, federal prosecutors said that Trump directed Cohen to commit two felonies - instructing the lawyer to make payments to two women who claimed to have had sex with Trump, buying their silence in the run-up to the 2016 election.
In addition to this, Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Trump, revealed that during his election campaign one of Trump's closest advisers met with a Russian, who was offering help from Vladimir Putin.
That's when Trump responded, claiming that it was the Democrats failing to find a "Smocking Gun". “Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun… No Collusion,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday, supposedly quoting fox news - before once again claiming it was all a "WITCH HUNT!".
It wasn't long before his typo began trending on Twitter, with many users finding it hilarious that not only did he misspell the word, but made it all the more obvious by saying it twice, with both words capitalised.
Searches for the term “smocking gun” and “smocking” – a type of embroidery made of many small folds - quickly surged, and there were plenty of jokes to go around.
Even the dictionary took a shot at him over the error.
In one surprising defence, Bill Mitchell claimed that this typo was not actually a mistake in the first place.
Mitchell, who hosts a YouTube channel "dedicated to supporting the presidency of Donald J Trump," came up with the creative explanation that it was all a deliberate choice “because he is MOCKING the Democrats for having no smoking gun”.
“Why would Trump use ‘Smocking Gun’, capitalized as to draw even more attention to it?” he explained, before telling Dems to "Consider yourselves #smocked" - a hashtag I'm not entirely sure will catch on.
Whether you agree with that... well, you're mileage may vary, but this isn't the first time Trump has been mocked for a spelling mistake on Twitter.
In May 2017, the internet was blessed with the tweet, "Despite the constant negative press covfefe," and went to town on it.
While this latest Twitter mishap has given us its fair share of laughs, I don't think it can ever quite match covfefe, a word that will be stuck in my brain for years to come.
us1 min(s) read
Published 15:28 18 Jan 2019 GMT
Michael Cohen was Donald Trump's trusted confidante for years, but now he's turned into his worst enemy. Reportedly the former attorney turned convicted felon has flipped on his former boss, and is spilling all of the glorious tea. Special counsel Robert Mueller's FBI investigation has been remarkably tight-lipped, but this week we learned some juicy information - like that Cohen hired someone to create a thirst trap Twitter account called "Woman for Cohen."
In case you've been distracted by Cardi B rants and morons jumping off cruise ships: Mueller is investigating possible Russian collusion during the 2016 US presidential election and possible obstruction of justice on behalf of Individual-1, aka Donald J. Trump. On Twitter, the president frequently refers to this investigation as a "witch hunt," but for a witch hunt, they sure have caught a lot of witches. As of this writing, Mueller's team has gotten indictments and guilty pleas from 33 people and three companies - including Michael Cohen.
Last August, Cohen, Donald Trump's longtime lawyer, pleaded guilty to eight counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud. He stated that he violated campaign finance laws at the direction of Trump and for the principal purpose of influencing the 2016 election. In addition, he pleaded guilty to Congress about lying to the Senate committee about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. According to today's bombshell report from BuzzFeed News, Cohen did so at the direction of Trump. If true, that's a smoking gun, and a possible argument for Trump's impeachment.
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But let's get back to what's really important: the thirst trap Twitter account! On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal published a report that Cohen hired John Gauger, the chief technology officer at Liberty University, to help rig polls in Trump's favor. Not the most shocking news, but this detail was surprising, and hilarious: Cohen also asked Gauger to create the Twitter account @WomenForCohen.
On Twitter, WSJ stated the account was "created in May 2016 and run by a female friend of Mr. Gauger, described Mr. Cohen as a 'sex symbol,' praised his looks and character, and promoted his appearances and statements boosting Mr. Trump’s candidacy." Screenshots of the since-deleted account reveal the Twitter bio, which reads, "Strong, pit bull, sex symbol, no nonsense." (Wow, that's the same I put on my Twitter account!)
If this story isn't weird enough for you, don't worry, there's more: The contractor was paid for the poll-rigging and Twitter thirst strap with "a blue Walmart bag containing between $12,000 and $13,000 in cash and, randomly, a boxing glove that Mr. Cohen said had been worn by a Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter," according to the Wall Street Journal. He was promised $50,000, but hey, that boxing glove probably covered the diff, right?
But enough with these boring words. Prepare to swoon over some sultry images from @WomanForCohen. "#handsome #sexy"
On Twitter, Michael Cohen responded to The Wall Street Journal's story, writing, "As for the @WSJ article on poll rigging, what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of @realDonaldTrump @POTUS. I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it."
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/MichaelCohen212/status/1085900900835778560]]
Unfortunately, he did not respond to the hilarious @WomanForCohen Twitter account, or hashtag his tweet "#handsome" and "#sexy."
uncategorised3 min(s) read
Published 16:11 05 Dec 2017 GMT
uncategorised1 min(s) read
Published 16:35 31 Oct 2017 GMT
One of the beautiful things about Twitter is that it allows us to see the true personalities of our favourite celebrities. Sometimes it's for the good, other times it's for the bad. One person who uses Twitter for their benefit, is JK Rowling. Rowling, who is the author of the infamous Harry Potter books, is quite simply a savage on Twitter.
The English-born writer is well known for her brutal takedowns and outspoken personality when it comes to dealing with Twitter trolls, and it seems like no one is exempt from her scorn - not even the most powerful man in the world.
While Rowling uses Twitter to her benefit, showing both intelligence and sharp humour; the same cannot be said for Donald Trump. Unfortunately, the President is a bit of a loose cannon on Twitter, with him regularly raising that bizarre wispy haircut covered head and descending on bizarre tirades against "fake news" and the Democrats.
On Sunday, the President exploded into a rant about Hillary Clinton, uranium, emails etc... you know, all his favorite things.
Check it out below:
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/924635359480303616]]
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/924637600094326784]]
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/924639422066384896]]
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/924641278947622913]]
It seemed like it was just another random Trump tirade, however there was definitely one major factor at play here. Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller had already announced that he was ready to begin indictments in the investigation into the colluding between Trump campaigners and Russia - so it's hardly a phony story, Mr President.
When looked at it like this, it's fair to say that it seems as if Trump is trying to wave a smoke screen in front of the eyes of the media. By bashing his orange fingers on his keyboard, the President appears to be trying to draw the world's eyes onto his Twitter account, rather than the ongoing investigation into his election campaign.
It's been a pretty tough few months for Trump, with the Russia story dominating his presidency, and it's easy to see why. First, there was the way he handled the investigation initially, with the President firing FBI Director James Comey when he began to investigate Trump's Russia ties.
But unfortunately for Trump, the firing of the FBI Director had an unintended effect. Due to his suspicious behaviour and to ensure that there was no collusion, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein hired special counsel Robert Mueller to look into the claims.
Steve Bannon, who was once Trump's right hand man, believes that the sacking of Comey was one of the biggest mistakes in the President's reign.
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/yashar/status/907034074644144128]]
"I don’t think there’s any doubt that if James Comey had not been fired, then we would not have a special counsel, yes," Bannon said to interviewer Charlie Rose. "We would not have the [special counsel Robert S.] Mueller investigation. We would not have the Mueller investigation in the breadth that clearly Mr. Mueller is going."
So, what did JK Rowling make of Trump's latest Twitter meltdown? Well it's safe to say that she wasn't too impressed.
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Burn.
uncategorised3 min(s) read
Published 15:00 03 Dec 2017 GMT
celebrity2 min(s) read
Published 09:20 04 Jul 2018 GMT
Donald Trump may be renowned for many things, but his writing skills aren't one of them. The tweet-a-minute president has made countless errors in his social media interactions before, and - at this rate - is more likely to go down in history for his inexplicable "covfefe" post than he will for achieving any kind of significant diplomatic progress.
But it seems that he's very much in denial of this (which we should have known from his "I have the best words" claim last year), and yesterday tweeted about how excellent he is at writing:
"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!"
Unfortunately, the tweet proved the exact opposite of what he was trying to say, as one person's corrections make clear:
The former businessman quickly tried to cover up his one most glaring error - the misspelling of "pore" - by deleting the original tweet and reposting with the correct spelling, but the damage was done. Hundreds of people had already called him out on the error, including none other than an actual bestselling author, JK Rowling.
In a series of four tweets, the Harry Potter writer demonstrated exactly how she felt about someone with Trump's track record of spelling errors describing himself as a great wordsmith:
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1014260943533027329]]
"Seriously, @realDonaldTrump is the Gratest Writer on earth," she concluded in a deliberately error-laden post.
She also pointed out that the so-called "best selling" book Trump is referring to - The Art of the Deal - was actually ghostwritten, and the book's real author, Tony Schwartz, has given interviews about how he felt guilty for concealing his identity for so long.
"I put lipstick on a pig," he said in an interview with the New Yorker. "I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is ... I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization."
But Schwartz and Rowling haven't been the only people to publicly roast Trump over his writing abilities (or lack thereof). Yesterday, even the Merriam-Webster dictionary had some shade to dish out.
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/1014270254049087488]]
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/RealRBHJr/status/1014296132586000384]]
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/WilDonnelly/status/1014288750942347264]]
For now, Trump can continue deleting tweets and convincing himself that he is some sort of "stable genius", but the evidence points to the contrary. He has consistently proven that he cannot write, cannot communicate, and, most worryingly, cannot govern.
Fortunately, Trump's tweets are considered presidential records, and the National Archives has requested that the White House keep note of deleted or altered tweets - meaning that, no matter how hard he tries to cover his tracks - his mistakes will always be on record somewhere.
So, if JK Rowling ever wants to investigate the litany of errors in the backlog of the president's social media interactions at any point, official records should give her plenty of material to "pour" over.