The Internet had a brief freak out on Monday afternoon after people noticed some strange behavior from the State Department’s official website.
According to a biographies section of the State Department’s site, President Trump’s presidency was set to end at 7pm on January 11th.
I don’t know what to make of this US State Department website that says Trump’s term ended Jan 11th at 7pm. Anyone??? It’s a legit dot gov site. https://t.co/dwKY1xJVVC
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 11, 2021
NOW: U.S. State Department webpage says President Trump & Vice President Mike Pence’s terms “ended” today, but then it lists an hour & minute that hasn’t yet occurred: 19:40:41 / 7:40pm.
Something isn’t right.
Expect statement from @StateDept soon. https://t.co/Od5tY4v2yK pic.twitter.com/DCFKCmgwPQ— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 11, 2021
People immediately questioned whether the State Department’s website had been hacked.
https://twitter.com/PhillyD/status/1348721817247117312
Update: Apparently an angry staffer was responsible for the message.
UPDATE: Sources tell @BuzzFeedNews a "disgruntled staffer" is behind the State Department site's change of Trump and Pence's biographies. More TK. https://t.co/5Gbb3cEhRK
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) January 11, 2021
Via Buzzfeed News
A disgruntled employee at the State Department changed the biographies of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to say their term was coming to an end on Monday — nine days before President-elect Joe Biden is to be sworn in — two current-serving diplomats with knowledge of the situation told BuzzFeed News.
The president’s biography was changed to read, “Donald J. Trump’s term ended on 2021-01-11 19:49:00,” while the vice president’s biography was edited to “Michael R. Pence’s term ended on 2021-01-11 19:44:22.”
One of the diplomats said that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has ordered an internal investigation into the matter, beginning with interns and employees leaving the State Department this week and next ahead of the transition to the Biden administration.
The Internet had plenty of jokes regarding the snafu at the State Department.
Half the planet just went to the State Department website then checked their watch.
— Jeffrey Wright 🥜 (@jfreewright) January 11, 2021
BREAKING: Jason Derulo has fallen down the stairs of the state department’s website pic.twitter.com/fZlIRJ4lu3
— lexi (@PARTYLEXDOOR) January 11, 2021
https://twitter.com/GarfieldFanArt/status/1348729877122273280
me desperately wanting to believe the state department website accidentally told us trump is resigning pic.twitter.com/CwNDEj34rO
— heath (@heathdwilliams) January 11, 2021
me to state department website pic.twitter.com/RJBJkoRaeA
— rat king 🐀 (@MikeIsaac) January 11, 2021
It's very telling that Donald Trump has not tweeted to clarify the State Department website announcement
— Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) January 11, 2021
The State Department social media manager deciding to end the Trump presidency: pic.twitter.com/G3jYWhWYIh
— Sam Stryker (@sbstryker) January 11, 2021