Donald Trump's "I Hereby Demand" Tweets

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About

Donald Trump's "I Hereby Demand" Tweets refers to the reaction to a series of tweets by United States President Donald Trump that begin with the phrase "I hereby demand."

Origin

On March 3rd, 2017, President Trump shared an article from Politico^[1] claiming that photograph of House of Representatives minority leader Nancy Pelosi at a meeting with Sergey Kislyak, a key figure in the investigation into collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign during the 2016 United States presidential election. He tweeted,^[2] "I hereby demand a second investigation, after Schumer, of Pelosi for her close ties to Russia, and lying about it." The post (shown below) received more than 38,000 retweets and 116,000 likes in one year.

Spread

The tweet, as many users pointed out, was misspelled the first two times the President attempted to post it, leading to many jokes about the Trump's misspelling of "hereby," tweeting and deleting the variations "hear by," "hearby" and "hereby." That day, Twitter^[3] user @MikeMadden posted a screen-capture of the notifications he received of the three posts with the caption "I like how the tweet about improving our education system (for our kids!) is between two misspellings." The post (shown below, left) received more than 840 retweets and 1,600 likes in one year.

Twitter user @davidmackau tweeted^[4] a mock conversation between two aides arguing over who will tell the president about the typo. Within one year, the post (shown below, center) received more a 20 retweets and 75 likes.

Additionally, that day, the official Twitter account for the Merriam-Webster Dictionary tweeted^[5] a link to the definition of the word "Hereby." The post (shown below, right) received more than 10,000 retweets and 26,000 likes in one year.

Several media outlets covered the tweet and the misspelling, including USA Today,^[6] The Daily Dot, ^[7] Business Insider,^[8] The Hill^[9] and more.

2018 Hereby Tweet

On May 18th, The New York Times^[10] reported that the FBI had used informants to investigate the Trump campaigns ties to Russia. The next day, The Times^[11] reported that a meeting at Trump Tower between representatives of the Trump campaign, including Donald Trump Jr, met with an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes, who offered to help the Trump team win the 2016 election. The

On May 20th, President Trump tweeted,^[12] "I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes – and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!" Within two days, the post (shown below) received more than 53,000 retweets and 178,000 likes.

Shortly after the tweet was published, people on Twitter began commenting on his use of the phrase "I hereby demand," commenting that it is unlike the behavior of other presidents. Twitter^[13] user @NYinLA2121 tweeted a list of all the presidents that never said the phrase and it includes nearly every other president in United States history. The post (shown below, left) received more than 20,000 retweets and 71,000 likes in two days.

Twitter^[14] user @Myrmecos tweeted a picture of an ant with the caption "I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that ants be made as fuzzy as bees so more people want to save them. (Tetramorium pulcherrimum, Uganda)" The post (shown below, center) received more than 175 retweets and 900 likes in two days.

Captain America star Chris Evans tweeted,^[15] "‘Hereby demand’ is actually hilarious. It sounds like a 6 year old wearing a Burger King crown playing make-believe." Within two days, the post (shown below, right) received more than 34,000 retweets and 207,000 likes.

Several media outlets covered the tweet, including The Washington Post,^[16] Slate,^[17] CNN,^[18] The Atlantic^[19] and more.