President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter early Saturday morning to share his thoughts on the U.S. Navy underwater drone that was captured by the Chinese Navy earlier in the week.

@realDonaldTrump: "China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters — rips it out of water and takes it to China in unprecedented act."

His first (now-deleted) tweet on the subject, however, showed that he misspelled "unprecedented," and the Twitter universe had a field day with the gaffe.

Olbermann tweet

Merriam-Webster wasted no time in correcting the president-elect's spelling.

Merriam-Webster tweet

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, described the president-elect's early-morning tweet as "madness" on an international scale.

Murphy tweet

Some saw the misspelling as an opportunity for a teaching moment for Trump, while others saw it as a chance to take a dig at a few of his controversial issues.

Emily tweet

Trump university tweet

HS diploma tweet

Words tweet

Popular vote tweet

Grabbing tweet

Given the history between NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and Trump, it seems at least one user expects the show's writers to include the blunder in actor Alec Baldwin's portrayal of the president-elect on SNL.

SNL tweet

Baldwin teased a return to the show Saturday, suggesting he'll be reprising his role as the president-elect and won't "apple-agize."

Baldwin tweet 1

Baldwin tweet

Trump has previously called out others for spelling errors.

Spelling tweet

As one user pointed out, it took the Trump team 87 minutes to correct the tweet, but by then the damage was done.

Time tweet

One user seemed to think Trump's tweet played a role in China's decision to return the U.S. Navy's underwater drone.

Drone tweet

It remains to be seen if the president-elect will take credit for urging China to return the drone.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is parent to NBC and CNBC.



CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of actor Alec Baldwin's name.