--- title: Donald Trump: Merriam Webster on Council and Counsel Meaning description: Merriam Webster says searches for both council and counsel spiked after President Trump used the spelling councel in a tweet canonical: https://time.com/4784891/merriam-webster-corrects-trump-counsel/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-18T20:23:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:03:15.510Z og:title: Merriam Webster to President Trump: You’re Spelling 'Counsel' Wrong og:description: It's "the second time in ten days that the president has misspelled counsel" og:url: https://time.com/4784891/merriam-webster-corrects-trump-counsel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70a5016bbf031831/6988cdd62dce01d6af9ed89b/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4760 og:image:height: 2678 og:image:alt: 170518_donald trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Merriam Webster to President Trump: You’re Spelling 'Counsel' Wrong twitter:description: It's "the second time in ten days that the president has misspelled counsel" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70a5016bbf031831/6988cdd62dce01d6af9ed89b/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Merriam Webster to President Trump: You’re Spelling 'Counsel' Wrong > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=77683803-b302-4cd3-b6dc-311501e4cd0f&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Trump Says Special Counsel Appointment Is A "Witch Hunt" [Watch (HLS stream): Trump Says Special Counsel Appointment Is A "Witch Hunt"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cWBwNjT7.m3u8) (1:05)  _Published 2017-05-18. President Donald Trump denounced the appointment of a special counsel to investigate his campaign's ties with Russia Thursday, repeatedly calling it an unprecedented "witch hunt" that "hurts our country terribly."_ by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 18, 2017 8:23 PM UTC President Donald Trump denounced the appointment of a special counsel to investigate his campaign's ties with Russia Thursday, repeatedly calling it an unprecedented "witch hunt" that "hurts our country terribly." by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 18, 2017 8:23 PM UTC [Merriam Webster](http://time.com/4726025/dictionary-ivanka-trump-complicity-merriam-webster/) is not done [schooling the President](http://time.com/4774687/merriam-webster-dictionary-politics-donald-trump-hillary-clinton/) on his homophones. President Donald Trump fired off a tweet on Thursday criticizing the appointment of a [special counsel](https://twitter.com/Andy/status/865172192174190592) to investigate allegations his campaign collaborated with Russia to influence the 2016 election, tweeting: “With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special “councel” appointed!” (He has since tweeted the message with the correct spelling.) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/865207118785372160) “Lookups for both council and counsel spiked on May 18, 2017, after President Trump used the spelling councel in a tweet,” Merriam Webster tweeted Thursday, linking to a post on their site, which noted that this was “the second time in ten days that the president has misspelled counsel on Twitter, the previous time in a tweet on May 8.” Ever the lingo snobs, the reference noted that “councel” is the most searched word of the day deploying the line “by far,” to use terms the President [might have said a few times](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/no-gday-mate-on-call-with-australian-pm-trump-badgers-and-brags/2017/02/01/88a3bfb0-e8bf-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.9665518eae68 https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/865260640092520448). > [](https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/865260640092520448) But the typo was just the latest catnip for the social media team over at Merriam Webster, which took to Twitter to fire off a pair of snarky tweets last week reminding the President of the difference between council and counsel, after he first mistakenly used “council,” which means assembly, while “counsel” means lawyer. Merriam Webster being Merriam Webster, will not let POTUS live this one down. > [](https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/861576558494056448) > [](https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/861577625927659520) It looks like class is not dismissed yet. ## Transcript [00:00] Mr. President I would like to get your reaction to [00:02] deputy attorney general [ UNKNOWN ] decision to [00:05] appoint a special counsel to investigate the Russian [00:09] interference in the campaign, was this the right move [00:13] or is this part of a witch- hunt? Well, I respect the [00:17] move, but the entire thing has been a witch- hunt and [00:20] there's no collusion between. Circle e myself and my [00:23] campaign but I can always speak for myself and the [00:27] Russians zero I think it divides the country I [00:31] think we have a very divided country because of that [00:34] and many other things so I can tell you that we want to [00:38] bring this Great country of ours together John and I will [00:42] also say very strongly we've had tremendous success. [00:44] You look at our job numbers, you look at what's going [00:47] on at the border as we discussed before. You look at [00:50] what will be happening your gonna see some [00:52] incredible numbers with respect to the success of [00:55] general matters and others with. The ISIS [00:59] situation, the number is staggering. 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