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Trump blames his support of Russia on a double negative and no one's buying it

Grammar is to blame! No collusion!

Nicole Gallucci

on July 17, 2018

Do you know the difference between the words "would" and "wouldn't?" No? That's okay! You can still be president!

On Tuesday afternoon, Donald Trump attempted to clean up the monumental mess he caused during his joint press conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, by reading prepared statement in the White House.

Trump explained that the reason he gave his support to Russia on Monday was because of a simple grammatical error — he meant to use a double negative, but forgot! A common mistake, right?

*nervous fucking laughter that immediately turns to tears*

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"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,'" Trump said.

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"The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia" so, just to repeat it, I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'... sort of a double negative," he continued. So was it just a Freudian slip, then?

After this absurd, super illogical, seemingly untruthful explanation for why Trump supported Russia and said there was no collusion, Twitter users called his bluff and furiously trolled him with grammar jokes.

Let's just say Americans aren't convinced Trump isn't still team Russia.

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Let's see how long it takes for a dictionary to tweet the definition of "double negative."

Topics Donald Trump Politics

Nicole Gallucci

Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.