Trump tweets final stop, the ‘Phillipines’

MANILA, Philippines — If Filipino graphic artists can misspell the name of their own country on streamers, so can United States President Donald Trump.

The US leader was the latest to commit the spelling blunder after he tweeted a message ahead of his arrival in the country yesterday afternoon.

“Will be doing a joint press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam then heading for final destination of trip, the Phillipines,” Trump posted on his official Twitter account.

Trump will be in the country to attend the leaders’ summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its dialogue partners in Manila this week. He was in Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, which was also attended by President Duterte.

Trump’s spelling was similar to that of his spokesperson Sarah Sanders, who also misspelled “Philippines” in an earlier tweet.

“Watching our take off to (Hawaii), then Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Phillipines. Going to be a long, but great trip,” Sanders said in a tweet last Nov. 3.

Both US officials were called out over the misspelling, but the tweets were not corrected or taken down as of yesterday afternoon.

Trump’s blunder came days after the uproar caused by the welcome banners for the ASEAN Summit that misspelled the host country’s name as “Philppines.”

The Presidential Communications Operations Office distanced itself from the banners, which were produced by the regional office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Metro Manila.

The DILG has since apologized for the banners, which were immediately taken down.