#WithFewExceptions

Submission 11,443

Part of a series on Russiagate. [View Related Entries]

About

#WithFewExceptions or "With few exceptions" is a Twitter hashtag, mocking a statement from an Associated Press tweet, which stated President Donald Trump lawyer said that the President's tax returns contained "'no income of any type from Russian sources'" with few exceptions." People use "with few exceptions" to mock the cryptic and potentially contradictory nature of the "exceptions."

Origin

On May 12th, 2017, amid speculation of President Trump's financial ties to the Russian government, the Associated Press tweeted (shown below) that Trump's lawyer had released a statement regarding Trump's tax returns. The tweet said, "BREAKING: Trump lawyer: Tax returns from past 10 years show no 'income of any type from Russian sources,' with few exceptions."^[1] The tweet received more than 2,500 retweets and 3,000 likes within three hours.

Minutes later, Twitter user @BraddJaffy^[2] tweeted the full report (shown below) with the caption, "'The lawyers did not release copies of Trump's tax returns so The Associated Press cannot independently verify their conclusions.'" The tweet received more than 560 retweets 820 likes in three hours. As per the AP report, the exceptions include income from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and a property sold in 2008 to a Russian billionaire for $95 million.

Spread

Within minutes of the Associated Press' tweet, users began tweeting easily verifiable falsehoods with the contradictory hashtag #WithFewExceptions (similar to #AlternativeFacts ones that criticize the Trump administration. One of the most popular tweets came from user @hmgarth14^[4] and featured a picture from Betsy DeVos' commencement speech^[3] (shown below), at which she was booed, with the caption "Betsy DeVos is beloved by students everywhere #withfewexceptions."

Sean Spicer hiding in the bushes also became a popular source of jokes. Twitter user @SeanSpicerFacts^[5] tweeted a picture (shown below, left) of Spicer at a press conferences and the caption "I have never hidden in bushes. Period #withfewexceptions." They receieved more than 300 retweets and 800 likes in the first five hours. Another Twitter user, @Alderman_Rico,^[6] shared a similar tweet (shown below, right), a picture of Spicer speaking outside and the caption ".@PressSec #spicer doesn't hide in the bushes #withfewexceptions."

Historical tragedies, specifically the sinking of the Titanic, became a popular source of inspiration for the hashtag. Twitter user @TheRickyDavila^[7] tweeted a gif from the film Titanic and the caption "Titanic was unsinkable, #withfewexceptions." Within four hours, he received more than 100 retweets and 420 likes.

That day, Twitter published a Moments page, archiving some of the biggest tweets from the hashtag.^[8] Several news sites also published archives of the hashtag, including TIME^[9] and Gizmodo.^[10]