Donald J. Trump has been in overdrive the last two days, which started with a tweet thread in which he said racist things about unnamed “progressive Democratic congresswomen” clearly meant to be Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and fellow “squad” members Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley. For many, that a sitting president of the United States is, for the umpteenth time, freely spouting bigoted conjecture is upsetting. If you need some comic relief, perhaps this will help: Trump apparently doesn’t know how to spell Al Qaeda.
Earlier Monday the president was attending a “Made in America” event, wherein he was supposed to celebrate U.S. manufacturing but spent most of his time doing damage control over his racist tweets. This being Trump, “damage control” meant doubling down and making it worse.
In addition to repeating that the “squad” can “go back” to their home countries (incidentally, for three of them, that country is America), he added that anyone critical of the U.S. “can leave,” too. For another, he falsely accused Omar of being an Al Qaeda sympathizer. Later in the day, he tripled down in yet another Twitter storm.
While ranting, the president had himself a set of notes, to provide him with facts should he need them. Some curious, eagle-eyed people got a good angle on his notes, zoomed in, and say the word “Alcaida.”
Trump thinks Al Qaeda is spelled "Alcaida” https://t.co/YSnX9QmnTm
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 15, 2019
His notes also contained the words “some peopel.”
On the top of this large-font list of stupid and dishonest soundbites, Trump hand-wrote two reminders:
"ALCAIDA"
"SOME PEOPEL" https://t.co/SyoqLkbYyb— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) July 15, 2019
Oh, and it was spelled “Ohmar,” too.
https://twitter.com/dmartosko/status/1150873731335692294
Now, the notes could have been written by one of his staffers. Nevertheless, people who had spent the last two days horrified that the current American president is telling his critics to leave America got to have some well-earned fun at his expense (while also being horrified that someone who can’t spell is the president.)
“Alcaida.”
Only a person who hasn’t read any newspaper articles or briefing papers in the last 20 years would not know how to spell Al Qaeda. https://t.co/tqMTzo8pEX
— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) July 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/1150910556703997952
https://twitter.com/KellyO/status/1150858122770157571
2011: GOP strategist says Obama needs a teleprompter because he "doesn’t have a sound command of issues and doesn’t know what he’s doing."
2019: Trump's minders spell out Al Qaeda as "Alcaida" in his notes so the Q doesn't throw him and send him down a rabbit hole of babbling. pic.twitter.com/yukjQybzKH— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) July 15, 2019
Trump misspelled al-qaeda as ‘alcaida.’
Trump misspelled people as ‘peopel.’
He doesn’t know the words to the pledge or the national anthem.
He couldn’t pass a citizenship exam.
He couldn’t find the USA on a map.
— God (@thegoodgodabove) July 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/jeffreycondor/status/1150916032292360194
Come for the racism, stay for "Alcaida" https://t.co/pAz4fUaOMZ
— Scott Stedman (indefinite hiatus) (@ScottMStedman) July 15, 2019
“Alcaida.” What is this, ‘Hooked on Phonics”?https://t.co/kCwWSXaSlb
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) July 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/ellliebeth/status/1150916583826612224
https://twitter.com/Green_Footballs/status/1150860264411160576
Better watch out America, apparently there's a new terrorist group called Alcaida!
But don't worry, Trump is on it! He's the only person who even knows they exist!
— Craig (@user14201) July 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/nadabakos/status/1150892123245314053
https://twitter.com/themaxburns/status/1150884432821260288
Alcaida sounds like something a Boomer thinks a Millennial would order.
— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) July 15, 2019