The Trump administration was reportedly thrown into a tailspin in 2017 when someone at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels used the embassy’s official account to “like” an anti-Trump tweet from Chelsea Clinton.
The Daily Beast reported on Monday that the person had “liked” a tweet from Clinton on July 10, 2017, in which she fired back at President Donald Trump for suggesting her mother, Hillary Clinton, would’ve appointed her to hold her seat at a G-20 meeting “as her mother gave our country away.”
Good morning Mr. President. It would never have occurred to my mother or my father to ask me. Were you giving our country away? Hoping not. https://t.co/4ODjWZUp0c
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) July 10, 2017
The spat followed Trump’s decision that week to place his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, in his seat at one of the G-20 meetings while he attended private meetings at the summit.
According to the Daily Beast, the State Department first called the mission to complain about the offensive “like,” then opened a weeks-long investigation into the matter.
At least 10 people were grilled in the probe by top D.C. officials at the department who “wanted blood,” an unnamed source told the Daily Beast. They also reportedly bombarded the mission with calls amid their manhunt.
Ultimately, they failed to snag the transgressor.
The snafu fueled the paranoia that plagues Trump’s administration, which has made extensive efforts to root out staffers deemed “anti-Trump” or otherwise insufficiently loyal to the President.