--- title: Trump Gets Mocked on Twitter for Smocking Gun Tweet description: After tweeting spelling error "smocking gun," President Donald Trump got mocked on Twitter by people like Monica Lewisnky and Kathy Griffin. canonical: https://time.com/5475262/trump-smocking-gun/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-10T14:08:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T16:06:35.000Z og:title: Trump Tweeted 'Smocking Gun' and the Internet Got Crafty og:description: Monica Lewinsky and Kathy Griffin are weighing in og:url: https://time.com/5475262/trump-smocking-gun/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2e3786eb2fc3462/698940f4bc6cfc6d123e7a4e/trump-mueller.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Trump Mueller og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Tweeted 'Smocking Gun' and the Internet Got Crafty twitter:description: Monica Lewinsky and Kathy Griffin are weighing in twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2e3786eb2fc3462/698940f4bc6cfc6d123e7a4e/trump-mueller.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Tweeted 'Smocking Gun' and the Internet Got Crafty by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Updated: Dec 12, 2023 4:06 PM UTCPublished: Dec 10, 2018 2:08 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a bilateral meeting with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders' Summit in Buenos Aires, on December 1, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a bilateral meeting with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders' Summit in Buenos Aires, on December 1, 2018.SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Updated: Dec 12, 2023 4:06 PM UTCPublished: Dec 10, 2018 2:08 PM UTC The internet is not done schooling President Trump on his [Twitter typos](http://time.com/5371804/chris-evans-on-trump-2/). President Donald Trump began the week with a missive claiming that prosecutors have been unable to find evidence of collusion between his Russia and his presidential campaign, tweeting: “Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun…No Collusion.” @FoxNews That’s because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,…” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1072095127894667265) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1072098604599394305) The pair of tweets from early Monday morning were the latest in his ongoing criticism of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Suffice it to say the smocking mockery was swift as the commander-in-chief’s frequent critics wasted no time in targeting the word usage. > [](https://twitter.com/zachbraff/status/1072127313096138752) > [](https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1072167680545882114) > [](https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/1072174100355923968) > [](https://twitter.com/danieljgay/status/1072166576928030720) > [](https://twitter.com/MrBrandonStroud/status/1072187367237316608) > [](https://twitter.com/LibyaLiberty/status/1072188408951435264) > [](https://twitter.com/kenrudin/status/1072164612043345920) > [](https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/1072116705005133824) > [](https://twitter.com/kathygriffin/status/1072099881278332929) > [](https://twitter.com/GlennThrush/status/1072110483124174849) > [](https://twitter.com/MonicaLewinsky/status/1072108744211861504) > [](https://twitter.com/CharlesPPierce/status/1072110709121650689) > [](https://twitter.com/JeffreyGoldberg/status/1072100409618120704) > [](https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/1072108867453095936) > [](https://twitter.com/rgay/status/1072104410724163586) > [](https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1072099875729367040) > [](https://twitter.com/MalcolmNance/status/1072105509652709376) > [](https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/1072101125430611968) Some suggested the snafu was no mistake. > [](https://twitter.com/ashleyfeinberg/status/1072118160281735169) [Merriam Webster](http://time.com/4770763/merriam-webster-corrects-donald-trump-tweet/) defines smocking as “a decorative embroidery or shirring made by gathering cloth in regularly spaced round tucks.” And while jokes about the administration’s wording and typos have been consistent, a pattern repeated as people took to Twitter to remind POTUS about the importance of one misplaced letter, this was no new misspelling. Trump has tweeted “smocking gun” before, an error late night hosts like Stephen Colbert couldn’t resist digging into. > [](https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1072119091983515649) > [](https://twitter.com/NumbersMuncher/status/1072117069632684033) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5475262/trump-smocking-gun/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5475262/trump-smocking-gun/"},"headline":"Trump Tweeted 'Smocking Gun' and the Internet Got Crafty","datePublished":"2018-12-10T14:08:42.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T16:06:35.000Z","description":"After tweeting spelling error \"smocking gun,\" President Donald Trump got mocked on Twitter by people like Monica Lewisnky and Kathy Griffin.","url":"https://time.com/5475262/trump-smocking-gun/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2e3786eb2fc3462/698940f4bc6cfc6d123e7a4e/trump-mueller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2e3786eb2fc3462/698940f4bc6cfc6d123e7a4e/trump-mueller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump Mueller","caption":"Trump Mueller","creditText":"SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5475262/trump-smocking-gun/","name":"Trump Tweeted 'Smocking Gun' and the Internet Got Crafty"}}]}] ```