President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Thursday (18 May) claiming he is the victim of "the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in America". He also slammed the appointment of former FBI director Mueller to investigate Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 election and any ties between his campaign and Moscow.

"With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special councel appointed!" Trump tweeted.

It was not clear what "illegal acts" he was referring to. During his campaign, he did pledge to hire a special investigator to look into his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her term as secretary of State.

Many social media users, including Democrats, criticised and ridiculed the president's sweeping declaration and characterisation of the FBI probe amid the slew of White House controversies as a "witch hunt".

"As the representative of Salem, MA, I can confirm that this is false," Democratic Representative Seth Moulton, from the town known for actual witch hunts, tweeted.

"This is a truth hunt," Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said "appointing a special counsel is not a witch hunt" but "the right thing to do and your Republican colleagues agree."

Others pointed out Trump was one of the most vocal promoters of the "birther" conspiracy theory suggesting that his predecessor Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Witch Hunt he cries, but what about the Birther movement he led for 5 years and lock her up chants he embraced about Hillary Clinton emails — â»ï¸ Christopher Zullo (@ChrisJZullo) May 18, 2017

@realDonaldTrump Obama had no scandals in 8 years! You have a new insane scandal every hour of every day! And it's only been 4 months! — M.H.SanFran (@SanFranMoman) May 19, 2017

"And then he said, 'This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!'" pic.twitter.com/gHkpBRR3Qj — Sarah Lerner (@SarahLerner) May 18, 2017

Social media users were also quick to point out that the president had once again misspelled the word "counsel".

Even the official Merriam-Webster Twitter account tweeted that there was a huge spike in searches for "councel" and included a link to a post that noted this was "the second time in ten days that the president has misspelled counsel on Twitter, the previous time in a tweet on May 8."

Within minutes, Twitter users pounced on the opportunity to mock the president for his latest spelling gaffe with one user saying, "It's counsel, dumb sh*t".

"Why can't the President spell? My phone autocorrects every damn thing, does he tweet from a palm pilot?" one Twitter user wrote.

"He really has trouble with the word 'counsel'," Teddy Goff, a former digital strategist for Hillary Clinton tweeted.

That awkward moment the President of the United States can't spell "counsel" correctly! @realDonaldTrump ð¤¡ #Councel pic.twitter.com/ZJLv4eki4I — Sam Willeyð³ï¸âð (@SamWiseSW) May 18, 2017

Councel, councill, cownsel. How do we spells it precious? Very tricksy! Yes spelling VERY tricksy! Contsil? Is it counseals precious? Tough! — Gollum J. Trump (@realGollumTrump) May 18, 2017

No politician has ever been treated more unfairly by autocorrect than Donald Trump. Period #Councel pic.twitter.com/gEOEiSGRhk — Sean Spicer Facts (@SeanSpicerFacts) May 18, 2017

With all of the misspellings that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, why does my phone not autocorrect councel! — Donald J. Drumpf (@RealDonalDrumpf) May 18, 2017

counsel = a lawyer

council = a meeting

Counsell = a baseball player

councel = gibberish — Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) May 18, 2017

@ABC @POTUS *counsel*. You've been appointed a counsel. Not a councel! The nation's leader spells at grade school levels lol. I feel so safe — Andrew Koski (@AndrewKoski81) May 18, 2017

Councel, Donald? You of all people should never turn off spell check. And yes, that is a metaphor. https://t.co/8mhnyAxd3j — Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) May 18, 2017

I like tried to spell "counsel" the way Trump did -- "councel". My phone wouldn't let me — Amber Phillips (@byamberphillips) May 18, 2017

@realDonaldTrump Your spelling of "councel" is indeed special — Jonathan Kaye (@JonathanMKaye) May 18, 2017

I shit you not. "Counsel" happens to be on my third grader's spelling list this week. https://t.co/SGvQv7nA9U — Scott Snyder (@Ssnyder1835) May 18, 2017

And, honestly, if he could manage the first 2, I really wouldn't care so much about the 3rd one. — Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) May 18, 2017