Sure looks like Trump declared a ‘national emergency’ via the Notes app

Image: screenshot / notes app

The iOS Notes app is a simple, yet powerful tool. From remembering your grocery list, to jotting down random musings while on the bus, to celebrity apologies, over the years it’s worked its way into our lives in a number of surprising ways.  

And, as of Feb. 14, we can add one more to that list: Stating your intention to declare a manufactured “national emergency” via your press secretary. 

That’s right, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders just issued a statement saying President Donald Trump is planning a national emergency in order to get funding for a border wall. 

“President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action – including a national emergency – to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border,” read a screenshot of a message seemingly composed in the Notes app and tweeted by Sanders. 

The giveaway is the background. The iOS Notes app attempts to replicate the look of a fancy piece of paper, thus lending weight to whatever dumb nonsense is typed in that space. 

One confusing element of the screenshot — the odd blotch over the “i” in the word “delivering” — can be explained by the less than technically savvy use of an iPhone. After composing a message in the Notes app, a person might choose to take a screenshot of that message. These days, an iPhone will immediately populate a tiny version of said screenshot in the bottom left the screen. By tapping it (say, to crop it), you automatically open the image in Markup, which defaults to the pencil tool. 

All you need is one fat finger and all of the sudden you’ve got a weird dot on your message stating the President of the United States is about to do some bonkers shit. 

People are, understandably, confused that their beloved tool for remembering passwords has been used in such a manner. 

But that’s just the Trump administration for you. A fount of technological wisdom that never stops innovating.