Donald Trump isn’t exactly known for his precision in word choice. I mean — Dayton/Toledo, tomato/tomahto — right?
Still, there’s that fine line between embarrassing gaffe and outright Freudian slip. Early Tuesday morning, our duly-elected whiner-in-chief tweeted an almost unremarkable complaint about his being held accountable for lack of effective gun control:
The very on-brand tweet would likely have avoided headlines but for that one word: “reign.”
Twitter was quick to call out the president for his choice of monarchical language.
According to Merriam-Webster, “reign,” used as a noun, is defined as, “royal authority,” “sovereignty,” or, “the dominion, sway, or influence of one resembling a monarch.” So, basically, exactly what the term of President of the United States was not meant to be. That’s probably why #”reign” is trending on Twitter.
This a good time to point out that calling out a president (or more specifically, this president) for dictatorial rhetoric isn’t just more leftist noise. A March 2016 piece in The Federalist titled, “No, Mr. Trump, Presidents Don’t Reign,” called out then-candidate Trump for improperly referring to George W. Bush’s term in office as a “reign.” I guess the communications people didn’t brief the president on terminology.
Depressing as it is that our nation’s leader responds to tragic shootings by lamenting his own delusions of persecution, I am ever amused by those are determined to see the tweet half-full:
[Image via Mark Wilson, Getty Images.]