I Can't Even Be Mad...

Earlier this evening, Donald Trump's Twitter account posted a curious tweet:

May God be with the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI and Law Enforcement has arrived.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2017

(In case it goes bye-bye, the Tweet reads: May God be with the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI and Law Enforcement has arrived. 11:34 Nov. 14 2017)

The fact that the President's account posted a quasi-shout out to the victims of the Sutherland Springs shooting nine days after the fact is the sort of gaffe that those of us living through the Trump administration have learned to simply shrug off. Yes, of course, the President finally made a tweet nearly two weeks late about a shooting, story checks out. 

WHY  did the President's account suddenly make this seemingly ill-timed post? For those paying attention, Trump has been out of the country for the past twelve days. Owing to the magic of time zones and the international date line, and trans-continental air travel, it is likely President Trump sent this message right at the cusp of his phone losing wi-fi or cellular data service, and the original tweet got bounced back to his phone. When this happens, the Twitter app will store the orphaned tweet and attempt to send it along at the next possible opportunity. With this tweet suddenly popping onto Twitter means is that Donald either just turned on a phone where the tweet was stored, or has gotten into range of wi-fi or cellular data service as of 11:34 PM EDT. 

This is generally not a big deal for those of us who travel with phones. I know I have sat down in my seat on an airplane, written a text, or typed up a Facebook status, and watched it not send for a few moments before I have been forced to turn off my phone for takeoff. The post times out, the plane takes off, my post floats in the aether for a few hours, and when I turn my phone back on, suddenly I am making a comment about flying to MSP FROM MSP. I'm very meta. But, in my case, nobody gives a single damn because I am just a random passenger on a cheap red-eye flight. This is not the case for the President of the United States.

The security implications behind the nature of this tweet -- and the extrapolations people in the know could develop from keeping an eye on the President's twitter feed in the future -- are not insignificant (and not something I will be delving into because I enjoy not being visited by the Secret Service), but this is one of the rare instances where the absurdity of the Trump administration makes even the most innocuous gaffe into a potential headache for the administration and the government at large. Some will surely pounce on this tweet as just yet another sign of The Don's ever growing dementia. Others will downplay the significance of the missive as a technical glitch that anyone's doddering grandfather would fall into (whose parents haven't inadvertently sent a Facebook birthday message to them three months after their actual birthday? Not mine, surely). 

A story like this -- which would make the top two stories on Fox News had Obama done it -- will be a charming anecdote for those of us lucky enough to survive the Trump administration. Remember that time Donald forgot to clear out his drafts folder in the Twitter app? Good times. We will regale our children of this moment as we sit around a campfire eating hobo beans and drawing lots to see who has to go scout into the radiation zone for more beans. But, we can't even be mad about this. It is simply another great moment in Trump's presidency that defies expectations and challenges our assumptions about the people we have put into positions of absolute power over our lives. Just as every rose has it's thorn, every day of the Age of Trump has a gaffe.