“Unpresidented” Trump tweet sets off deluge of mockery

US president-elect got plenty of attention when he tweeted “China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters -- rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented (sic) act”. It was not the kind of attention he was looking for.

The spelling mistake quickly became the top trending topic on Twitter as online wags savaged the incoming president.

Author JK Rowling of “Harry Potter” tweeted “TrumpSpellCheck – Unpresidentedly effective”. Even dictionary Merriam-Webster weighed in when it tweeted “The#WordOfTheDay is … not ‘unpresidented’. We don’t enter that word. That’s a new one”.

This is not the first time Mr Trump has misspelled words or made typos. In a tweet criticizing his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton he wrote “Hillary Clinton should not be given national security briefings in that she is a lose cannon with extraordinarily bad judgement & insticts.” In another tweet he wrote in February “Every poll said I won the debate last night. Great honer!” This tweet was deleted after people pointed out the correct American spelling was “honor”.

However, Trump is not the only western leader with a spelling problem. In June 1992, US Vice President Dan Quayle altered a 12-year old student’s correct spelling of “potato” to potatoe” at the Munoz Rivera Elementary School spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey. Quayle was widely lambasted for his error.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also struggled with his spellings. In November 2001, in a good luck letter to Chris Mole Mr Blair wrote: “This is just a note to wish you luck toomorrow.  Best of luck to you and, of course to Ipswich Town in toomorrow’s big game.”

This led Mr Blair’s former English teacher step into the debate. Ian Robertson who taught Mr Blair at Fettes School in Edinburgh said that  Prime Minister Blair always had trouble spelling ‘tomorrow’. Downing Street aides came to the support of the Prime Minister stating the mistake was down to clumsy handwriting.

As such, if you ever get to make a spelling mistake in your writing, just don’t feel downhearted. Leaders of countries across the world are no better!