Claire Fallon has to watch her spelling even more carefully — now that she’s done a roundup of Trump administration spelling goofs.
Writing in HuffPost, Fallon noted: “At this point, Trump’s own slapdash spelling, often showcased on his personal Twitter, no longer raises an eyebrow. After a spate of notorious misspellings ― ‘unpresidented,’ ‘honered,’ ‘tapp,’ ‘hear by’ ― the public became accustomed to his typo habit, and his insistence on using Twitter as a filter-free channel to the American people.
“The latter issue, quite frankly, poses such significant national security and social justice concerns that the typos that slip through hardly seem worthy of commentary.”
Seth Masket, who worked in the White House Office of Correspondence in the ’90s, wrote in Pacific Standard in June that because the White House “is a venerable and highly professionalized organization with a great deal of institutional memory,” the sudden flood of typos is alarming.
When he worked for the White House, each piece of official communication went through at least four rounds of edits before being finalized, Fallon said.
“It’s actually difficult to produce errors like this under normal conditions,” Masket wrote.
Masket suggested a few possible causes behind the typo epidemic — like a rogue communications staffer or looser standards.
“Maybe there just aren’t enough political staffers to do the job right, or maybe people who do the typesetting have quit and not been replaced,” he said. “This would be consistent with what we’ve seen in many other areas of this administration.”
Fallon said: “It may seem elitist to complain of such petty errors. Still, it’s actually a function of Trump’s privilege, as a white man from a wealthy background, that he’s been able to succeed in business and politics despite that. It’s unlikely that President Barack Obama would have been given a pass for shoddy grammar and spelling.”
Other recent takes:
To be fair, WH press release said he was having a “Opiod” briefing, not “Opioid” so I understand the confusion
— Shasta Barbell (@shastabarbell) August 9, 2017
WH misspelled Opioid as “Opiod” on official announcement. And WHY was Melania sitting Next to Trump at the Opioid Briefing? Was Ivanka busy?
— MandMKittyz (@2HappyKittyz) August 9, 2017
After 200 days, this bot has had enough. Heading into retirement!
— Trump Spell Check (@realSpelling) August 9, 2017
If a Trump supporter speaks and no one is around to hear them, is their spelling still incorrect?
— AltRockyNPS ???? (@AltRockyNPS) August 7, 2017
I don’t think Mr Trump dictated that statement – there were no spelling errors and the grammar was not as bad as his usual efforts.
— Drew Roberts (@tomord) August 1, 2017
New Spelling Bee Rules For Trump’s America don’t forget to laugh today! https://t.co/8rMgTBlZTZ
— amy freeman (@mamafreeman) August 1, 2017
