Trump tweets about ‘Prince of Whales’ in latest gaffe

Message was live on the site for about 25 minutes before a corrected version issued

US president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended a dinner at Winfield House with prince Charles and Camilla during their state visit on June 4th. Photograph: Chris Jackson/ Getty Images
US president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended a dinner at Winfield House with prince Charles and Camilla during their state visit on June 4th. Photograph: Chris Jackson/ Getty Images

US President Donald Trump has called prince Charles the "Prince of Whales" in his latest Twitter gaffe.

Mr Trump was widely mocked after his latest spelling error, made as he was responding to an interview in which he suggested he would be open to discussing presidential opponents with foreign powers.

The president said on Thursday: “I meet and talk to ‘foreign governments’ every day.

“I just met with the Queen of England (UK), the Prince of Whales, the PM of the United Kingdom, the PM of Ireland, and the President of Poland.”

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The message was live on the site for about 25 minutes before a correctly spelled version of the tweet was issued.

Mr Trump met the prince of Wales last week during his state visit to the UK.

The president and his wife Melania took afternoon tea at Clarence House with Charles and the duchess of Cornwall, and all four of them later attended a state banquet at Buckingham Palace.

Mr Trump’s tweet came after his interview with NBC journalist George Stephanopoulos, in which he implied he would be open to accepting dirt on his 2020 election opponent if it was offered by a foreign government.

He said in the interview: “There’s nothing wrong with listening.

"If somebody called from a country — Norway — we have information on your opponent, oh, I think I'd want to hear it."

Tweeting on Thursday, the president continued and denied any suggestion of wrongdoing.

He added: “Should I immediately call the FBI about these calls and meetings?

“How ridiculous. I would never be trusted again.

“With that being said, my full answer is rarely played out by the Fake News Media.”

The phrase “Prince of Whales” was trending on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, as people joked about the error.

It was not the first time the president, a regular tweeter, has made mistakes in his social media posts.

During his state visit, Mr Trump called London mayor Sadiq Khan a "stone cold loser".

In a following tweet, the president also misspelled Mr Khan’s name, referring to him as “Kahn”. That tweet remains posted.

Mr Trump was also subjected to ridicule in 2017 when he tweeted the word “covfefe” when sending a message about the “negative press”.

However, rather than ignoring the mistake, the president embraced the spelling error, tweeting six hours later: “Who can figure out the true meaning of ”covfefe“ ??? Enjoy!”