Trump’s Flack Said a Lot of Wrong Stuff. Nerds Ain’t Having It

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer makes a statement at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House January 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Excuse me, are you the incoming spokesperson for President Donald Trump? You are? Great. You should hear this: If you try to mislead the American people you will incur the ridicule of Twitter, period. They will take you to task—and they’ll do it with Star Trek references.

First off, some background: Earlier today, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference—or, maybe more properly, issued a statement—and instead of discussing Trump’s speech to the CIA or the Women’s March events worldwide, Spicer attacked the media for their reporting of the crowd numbers from Inauguration Day. He said magnetometers kept crowds off the Mall in Washington (not true) and that newfangled, never-before-used ground coverings made the empty spaces look more sparse (also not true). And Spicer added that “this was the largest audience to ever witness the inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.”

That final point he backed up with numbers from the WMATA, Washington, DC’s public transportation system. Those numbers were also off, but it was the certainty of the “largest audience to ever witness” quote that Twitter jumped on. Soon after the conference ended, people on social media picked up on the line, recasting it to litigate things that nerds have fought about forever (the best Star Trek movie, the best Matrix film, and so on).

Overall, the Twitter response was relatively tame—especially considering the fact that the press conference was a hot topic on cable news well into the evening. But it was also a sign that even though Trump has transferred from @realDonaldTrump to @POTUS, the medium that he’s used for his message is isn’t going to give him a pass now that he’s president.

The meme is just beginning, but below are some of the finest examples to hit Twitter so far.

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