Donald Trump issues the most humiliating clarification ever and Twitter has a field day

We’ve all done it haven’t we? It’s such an easy mistake to make. Saying something that meant something when actually we really meant the exact opposite. It’s so easy to do. “We wish you all wouldn’t read this article.” Sorry, sorry, we meant “we wish you all would read this article.” See? It can happen to the best of us.

And, apparently it’s happened to the US President Donald Trump too.

In the wake of his hugely-criticised meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where he boldly said that he believed Putin over the entirity of his own intelligence agencies when it came to Russian interference in the 2016 election, and was accused by some people of treason against the United States, he was forced to issue a truly humiliating clarification. In the joint press conference he said that Putin had been “extremely strong and powerful” in denying Russia interfered in the 2016 election, adding, “I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

However, to assembled media at the White House on Tuesday he said:

“Now I have to say I came back and I said, ‘what is going on? What’s the big deal?’ So I got a transcript. I reviewed it. I actually went out and reviewed a clip of an answer that I gave. And I realise that there is a need for some clarification. It should have been obvious. I thought it would be obvious but I would like to clarify just in case it wasn’t. In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’. The sentence should have been: ‘I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t, or why it wouldn’t be Russia.’

“Just to repeat it, I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’. And sentence should have been, and I thought it would be maybe a little bit unclear on the transcript or unclear on the actual video, the sentence should have been: ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.’ Sort of a double negative. So you can put that in and I think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself.”

Related: Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’ co-author says the president is having a “breakdown” before our very eyes

See? Such an easy mistake to make. Oh, and it “should have been obvious”, so it’s all our fault really.

On the other hand, perhaps - and go with me just for a second here while we explore this altogether unlikely avenue - perhaps Trump meant exactly what he said first time and, when it was met with horror by even his long-time supporters at Fox News (yes, even Fox drew the line here), an advisor sat him down, like a child, and told him that he absolutely had to somehow backtrack, even it made him look like a complete idiot. Still, Trump lies all day, every day, so it probably wasn’t too difficult to do.

Naturally, Twitter, after recovering from its collective laughing fit, managed to do what it does best.

Even the legendary Richard Marx has got stuck in:

And our personal favourite, with a British twist:

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(Image: Getty)