President Donald Trump fumed on Twitter after a recent New York Times article reported that the president, in a meeting this past March, suggested a moat filled with snakes or alligators to fortify his long-sought wall at the southern border.
Trump claimed the reports, which were relayed to the Times by multiple officials present for the meeting, were fake news. Unfortunately, Trump was too distracted by his rage to notice a rather embarrassing typo.
It wasn't long before Trump deleted the tweet, replacing "moot" with "moat."
But the internet is forever, and replacing the tweet with the correct spelling was, ironically, moot.
Soon, Merriam-Webster trolled Trump about the typo with a masterful tweet.
Using a lesser-known, but more relevant definition of "moot," given the context, Merriam-Webster helped Trump learn the difference between the two words.
And people were cheering.
While the dictionary may be good at making jokes, the level of cruelty indicated by the contents of the New York Times report is nothing short of shocking. In addition to the moat, the President reportedly suggested flesh-piercing spikes atop the wall, electrifying the wall, and even shooting migrants in the legs to slow them down.
For many of Trump's supporters, however, the proposed atrocities were even more of a reason to support him.
The New York Times article was adapted from excerpts of Border Wars: Inside Trump's War on Immigration by New York Times correspondents Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear, available for pre-order here.
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