President Donald Trump on Wednesday prematurely said his campaign has “claimed” several battleground states’ electoral votes, a legally meaningless demand that has inspired Twitter users to jokingly make similarly nonsensical claims.
“We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead,” Trump tweeted.
“Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan,” he went on to say.
Twitter put a warning on Trump’s tweet, noting that “official sources may not have called the race when this was Tweeted.”
Map:2020 Presidential Election Results & Electoral Map
More results:Biden rebuilds ‘blue wall’ in Wisconsin, Michigan, narrowing Trump’s path to victory
While journalists have pointed out that a president claiming electoral votes from states has no legal significance in this context, many on Twitter have used the opportunity to also make unenforceable claims.
The trend was encouraged by singer John Legend moments after Trump tweeted: “Let’s all claim things we don’t have any right to. What y’all got.”
“To be clear, you have to say ‘hereby’ to make it legally binding,” he added.
Here’s a sampling of some of the jokes:
Contributing: Jordan Culver, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/11/04/we-hereby-claim-trends-twitter-after-trump-claims-states-votes/6167678002/
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