On Tuesday afternoon, Trump addressed Monday’s shocking Helsinki summit where the commander-in-chief sided with Vladimir Putin over the entire U.S. intelligence community when it came to the issue of Russian interference in the 2016 election. During this afternoon’s press spray ahead of a Cabinet meeting, Trump explained his remarks in Helsinki as simply a slip of the tongue and that he meant to say, “I don’t see why it wouldn’t be Russia” in regard to election interference instead of “I don’t see why it would be Russia.” It happens to the best of us!
Reporters watching Tuesday’s presser noticed notes scrawled in the margins of the president’s prepared statements with black marker. Among those notes was one of the president’s favorite catchphrases, although in this instance, it appeared to be misspelled.
CNN producer David P Gelles shared a screenshot of what he assumed was the phrase “THERE WAS NO COLLUSION” written in all caps across Trump’s talking points. Trump is fond of invoking this one during various speaking engagements or completely unprompted during one of his earl-morning, caps-lock rage tweets.
Trump wrote in big black Sharpie on his printed remarks: “THERE WAS NO COLLUSION” pic.twitter.com/5wiG4ukGce
— David P Gelles (@gelles) July 17, 2018
New York Times photojournalist Tom Brenner caught a different angle of the Sharpie scrawl, which shows that the president misspelled “collusion.”
The President wrote in sharpie “THERE WAS NO COLUSION” during a meeting with congressional members. pic.twitter.com/dYk88Ot9h8
— Tom Brenner (@tom__brenner) July 17, 2018
CNBC reporter Christina Wilkie then noticed that the president crossed out a line in the prepared remarks that committed to bringing bad actors involved in election meddling “to justice.”
Oh my. The only line Trump crossed out of his talking points appears to say, “Anyone involved in that meddling to justice.”
So it seems Trump did not want to say that those involved in the meddling would be brought to justice. https://t.co/pmpIFPuTyB
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) July 17, 2018
Here’s the close up >>> pic.twitter.com/0ThdZuKIws
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) July 17, 2018
“Collusion” isn’t the only word the president has trouble spelling. His Twitter feed is often littered with typos, and he frequently misspells “counsel” when rage-tweeting about the special counsel’s probe into Russian election interference.
This isn’t the first time the president has tipped his hand in regard to his talking points. The most egregious example occurred in February when cameras snapped Hope Hicks’s handwritten notes reminding Trump to show basic empathy to the kids who survived the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
