Oh, the pitfalls of politics and social media.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump loves to tweet. And there are folks on Twitter who love to troll.
Take @HamishP95, the person who played the “gotcha game” with The Donald on Saturday.
Accompanied by a picture of newly elected British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Hamish tweeted, “My Dad is thinking of voting for the first time ever for you.”
Not recognizing Corbyn, Trump or whoever posts to his official Twitter account responded, “Great.”
Proud of himself, Hamish trumpeted the news.
“You may want to delete this tweet Donald, I have proven you spectacularly wrong.”
British newspaper The Telegraph jumped on the Hamish bandwagon: “Donald Trump duped by Twitter photo of Jeremy Corbyn,” the headline for its story proclaimed.
And then there was piling on by another GOP candidate, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, eager to capitalize on the apparent gaffe.
“Wow. Is there a world leader you DO recognize? Is this guy going to vote for you too?” he tweeted, above a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin, riding shirtless on a horse.
Saturday’s “gotcha moment” came less than a week and a half after Trump stumbled when asked by a conservative radio host about the heads of major terrorist organizations.
How much of a ‘gotcha’ was it?
Corbyn wasn’t a prominent figure in British or Labour Party news, and certainly not world politics, until recent months. At age 66, he barely made it into the leadership contest at all.
Only the last-minute support of a handful of members of Parliament, who wanted to help broaden the debate by including the left-winger, got him onto the June ballot at all. His campaign tapped into anger over government austerity measures.
Corbyn was elected opposition leader less than an hour before Trump’s account tweeted, “Great.”
When Hamish made his initial Twitter post three hours earlier, the MP hadn’t been elected to leadership, although he was favored.
Ultimately, American voters will have to decide how important it is for a presidential candidate to know who the British opposition leader is — newly elected or not — and whether a Twitter prank should determine that.
With Trump enjoying 32% support among GOP candidates, it’s likely his campaign isn’t losing sleep over it.
Still, at the end of the day, the acclaim of his 15 minutes of Twitter fame was a bit much for Hamish.
“Need sleep, Goodnight. Still can’t believe I stumped the Trump.”