Analyzing six months of spelling mistakes from the White House
WASHINGTON— You probably heard about Donald Trump’s “covfefe” tweet. Maybe the one where he declared himself “honered” to serve the American people, or the one where he alleged there was a “tapp” on his phones.
So the president of the United States isn’t a great speller. We’re going to give him a pass here. We all have our flaws.
What’s more notable is how many mistakes there are in the official communications of Trump’s administration. Over Trump’s first six months in office, his White House has produced a steady stream of spelling errors and identification errors in formal statements, comments to the media and promotional graphics.
Barack Obama’s administration wasn’t typo-free. His White House misspelled such names as Ronald Reagan and even First Lady Michelle Obama (they once forgot one of the Ls). But the sheer volume of Trump errors would be unusual even for a small-town mayor, let alone a president with an army of proofreaders at his disposal.
We’ll exclude errors by Trump’s lawyer, who once declared him the “predisent,” and agencies like the departments of State and Education. Here is a running list of errors in official communications from the White House itself:
1. “John Huntsman Jr.” (Jon. Statement announcing Huntsman’s appointment as ambassador to Russia, July 18)
2. “Walter Schaub Jr.” (Shaub, resigning director of the Office of Government Ethics. Statement to the New York Times criticizing Shaub, July 17)
3. “Innacurately.” (Inaccurately. Twitter video criticizing the accuracy of the Congressional Budget Office, July 12)
4. “President Xi of the Republic of China.” (People’s Republic of China; the Republic of China is Taiwan. Official transcript from press office, July 8)
5. “Malcom Turnbull.” (Malcolm, prime minister of Australia. Trump’s Instagram account, July 8)
6. “And we are putting our minors back to work.” (Miners. Video on Trump’s Facebook page, June 23)
7. “Protecting our boarders.” (Borders. Statement to the Huffington Post, June 3)
8. “President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine.” (The U.S. does not acknowledge “Palestine”; quickly corrected to “President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.” Daily schedule, May 22)
9. “Promote the possibility of lasting peach.” (Lasting peace. Statement on goals for Trump’s Middle East trip, May 22.) 10. “Secretary of Commerce Steven Mnuchin.” (The commerce secretary is Wilbur Ross; Mnuchin is the treasury secretary. Email from press office, April 26)
11. “Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.” (Sergey. Tweet and Twitter image, May 11)
12. “Secretary of Educatuon” Betsy DeVos. (Secretary of Education. White House Snapchat feed on annual Easter Egg Roll, April 17) 13. “White Hosue.” (White House. White House web page for submit- ting Obamacare horror stories, March 13)
14. “Dr. (Scott) Gottleib.” (Gottlieb, commissioner of food and drugs. Statement on Gottlieb’s appointment, March 10) 15. “President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau launched the United States-Canada Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders?????.” (Note the five question marks. Statement, March 10) 16. “The Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Aijit Pai.” (Ajit. Daily schedule, March 6) 17. “American Sonoma.” ( American Samoa. List of attorneys general who met with Trump, Feb. 28)
18. “Our veterans have delvered for this nation.” (Delivered. Graphic tweeted by White House account, Feb. 28)
19. “The signal most important subject their is.” (Single, there. Press secretary’s statement on Michael Flynn, Feb. 13)
20. “Columbia.” (Colombia. Readout of phone call with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Feb. 13)
21. “Attaker.” (Attacker. List of terror attacks the media supposedly did not pay attention to, Feb. 6)
22. “Denmakr.” (Denmark. List of terror attacks the media supposedly did not pay attention to, Feb. 6)
23. “San Bernadino.” (San Bernardino. List of terror attacks the media supposedly did not pay attention to, Feb. 6)
24. “President of Australia.” (Prime minister. Official list of actions Trump has taken to “make America safe,” Feb. 4)
25. “Secretary of Defense John Kelly.”) (Secretary of Homeland Security. Statement on Trump’s accomplishments, Feb. 4)
26. “Richard Tumka.” (Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO. List of business and labour leaders participating in manufacturing initiative, Jan. 27.)
27. “Marilynn Hewson.” (Marillyn Hewson, chief executive of Lockheed Martin. List of business and labour leaders participating in manufacturing initiative, Jan. 27.)
28. “Teresa” May. (Theresa. Official schedule for the U.K. prime minister’s visit to the U.S., Jan. 27)
29. “Priority enery.” (Energy. White House website, Jan. 24)