Former President Donald Trump shared a humorous yet frustrating anecdote on Wednesday, revealing that his phone's autocorrect feature consistently altered his wife Melania's name to "Melody" in his posts on Truth Social, his official communication platform.
Trump recounted the story during a public event attended by Melania Trump. The presence of a woman named Melody appeared to inspire him to recount the mishap with both amusement and a touch of apology to the audience.
"We have spell check and word correction on these crazy devices we use to post on Truth Social, which we used to call tweets. And every time I typed Melania, it corrected it to Melody," Trump explained.
The issue was compounded by Trump's tendency to work "very quickly," often neglecting to proofread his messages before sharing them. As a result, several posts, including Mother's Day wishes intended for the First Lady, featured the incorrect name.
"I'd write 'Melania is amazing' and 'happy Mother's Day, Melania, our great First Lady, Melania.' But it would change to 'Melody.' And sometimes I wouldn't check, and I'd get absolutely hammered," Trump admitted.
The reaction on social media was swift, with users claiming the former president was unaware of his wife's name. "They'd say, 'He doesn't know his wife's name, he keeps calling her...' And I thought, what on earth is wrong with this machine? I didn't know about that little feature," he recalled with laughter.
The situation was eventually resolved with the unexpected assistance of military personnel. "Do you know who fixed it? The military. I said, 'Come here, you have to fix this. They're killing me,'" Trump recounted.
Trump concluded his tale with an apology to those present: "I got a lot of flak. She was called Melody many times. Anyway, I had to explain it this way. I stood up here to explain it. I'm sorry."
This incident adds to a series of typographical errors in Trump's digital posts, the most infamous being the mysterious "covfefe" in May 2017, which went viral worldwide and remained unedited for six hours.
During his first term from 2017 to 2021, analysts recorded over 1,100 mistakes in approximately 8,000 tweets, with error rates 2% to 3% above average. Other notable blunders included "unpresidented" instead of "unprecedented" and "smocking" instead of "smoking."
Launched in February 2022 after Trump's suspension from Twitter, Truth Social lacks a retroactive editing feature like those found on other platforms, leaving errors publicly visible until the author deletes and reposts the message.
Common Typographical Mistakes in Trump's Social Media Posts
What is Truth Social?
Truth Social is a social media platform launched by Donald Trump in February 2022, following his suspension from Twitter. It serves as his official communication channel.
How did Trump resolve the autocorrect issue?
Trump enlisted the help of military personnel to fix the autocorrect issue that was changing Melania's name to "Melody" in his posts.
What was the "covfefe" incident?
The "covfefe" incident refers to a tweet posted by Donald Trump in May 2017 that included the incomplete and nonsensical word "covfefe," which remained unedited for six hours and became a viral sensation.