The official White House statement on the death of former first lady Barbara Bush contained an unfortunate typo which President Trump then tweeted out, enabling some efficient dragging on Twitter.
Although Barbara Bush died yesterday, the statement was dated April 17, 2017. As in last year.
Not to make a bad situation worse, but Trump and the White House screwed up the Barbara Bush press release. Apparently, she died a year ago. #hiregoodeditors pic.twitter.com/WKbtKR03Yy
— David London (@davidlondon) April 18, 2018
The Trump administration has an extensive history of typos in official materials and on social media. Trump’s official inauguration poster declared that “no challenge is to great.” Last April the White House Snapchat referred to “Secretary of Educatuon Betsy DeVos.” Press releases about the visit of British prime minister Theresa May misspelled her name as “Teresa May,” a porn star. According to a May 2017 press release, Trump will “promote the possibility of lasting peach” in the Middle East.
But this error, coming as it did in a memorial, was egregious, as Twitter pointed out. (Trump apparently deleted the tweet, then reposted it with the erroneous date cropped out of the attached release.)
When you care so much that you can’t even bother to have the correct year on an official White House statement. https://t.co/1efTrXHTmB
— Eugene V. Belitsky (@Jhenya_Belitsky) April 18, 2018
Trump got the year wrong in his Barbara Bush condolence statement, saying it’s 2017. I just hope he doesn’t screw up the anniversary of 9/10.
— Alec Sulkin (@thesulk) April 18, 2018
April 17, 2017. You really do hire the best people. It wouldn’t be a Whitehouse press release without an error. https://t.co/t08K5oYuAc
— Winson ‘Year of the Dog’ Wong 黃永傳 ? (@wincewong) April 18, 2018
Yesterday, Barbara Bush was remembered as “The Enforcer,” a resolute and straightforward presence, both in the White House and as the matriarch of a large family dedicated to public service. She was 92 and had congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Her funeral will be held Saturday in Houston.
In her last years, the former first lady made it clear she was no fan of Trump. During the 2016 presidential primary, she called his support among women voters “incomprehensible” and decried his sexist remarks toward then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly. “He’s like a comedian or like a showman or something. It’s just, the whole thing, not working with Congress … that’s the way things get done in this country,” she told “CBS This Morning.” “I don’t know how women can vote for someone who said what he said about Megyn Kelly. It’s terrible. And we knew what he meant too. Don’t you get in his firing line. And money doesn’t buy everything. It’s accomplishments and what you’re doing and giving. It’s incomprehensible to me.”
