Politics

A Man Named Alex Baldwin Is Having a Terrible Day on Twitter Thanks to Trump's Misspelling

Donald Trump's typo in a scathing tweet brought the nation's attention to 28-year-old web designer Alex Baldwin on Friday

By

Published on March 2, 2018 04:14 PM

Alex Baldwin was been dealing with jokes comparing him to actor Alec Baldwin since second grade. But things went into overdrive for the 28-year-old on Friday morning, when President Donald Trump twice made a typo in a scathing tweet that brought the nation’s attention Alex’s way.

It all started when Alec, 59, spoke with the The Hollywood Reporter about his Emmy-winning Trump impression on Saturday Night Live, admitting in an interview published Thursday, “Every time I do it now, it’s like agony.”

The president, 71, wasn’t happy to hear that and took to his popular Twitter account to lash out at the former 30 Rock star. Only, instead of writing Alec, he wrote Alex.

“Alex Baldwin, whose dieing mediocre career was saved by his impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing DJT was agony for him,” Trump wrote. “Alex, it was also agony for those who forced to watch. You were terrible. Bring back Darrell Hammond, much funnier and a far greater talent!”

While Trump deleted and republished the tweet soon thereafter, correcting his spelling mistakes in the process, the damage was still done for Alex.

The web designer tells PEOPLE he woke up to “a couple hundred” notifications on his phone, joking it’s an “abnormal” phenomenon he’s only used to seeing when Baldwin is in the news.

“I guess you could say that I am a living barometer of when Alec Baldwin is getting into trouble,” Alex says. “I’m just used to it at this point. Maybe the iPhone autocorrects Alec to Alex?”

Much of the traffic appeared to be coming from bots. “They don’t make any sense and you can tell they’ve just been stuffed with keywords and are programmed to generate from whatever tweet is trending at the moment,” he explains.

“The whole thing is kind of ironic because I’m a web designer and I’ve actually made a number of bots — only mine post cute animal photos to Instagram or tweet the current score whenever the Golden State Warriors are playing,” he says. “So it’s funny getting the other end of it.”

alec-donald — Will Heath/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank; JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

RELATED VIDEO: PEOPLE Writer Natasha Stoynoff Breaks Silence, Accuses Donald Trump of Sexual Attack

Baldwin responded to the president’s jab on Twitter soon after Trump’s early morning rant.

“Agony though it may be, I’d like to hang in there for the impeachment hearings, the resignation speech, the farewell helicopter ride to Mara-A-Lago,” he wrote. “You know. The Good Stuff. That we’ve all been waiting for.”

The actor then joked about the things that would wind up in the Trump Presidential Library (“A putting green, recipes for chocolate cake, a live Twitter feed for visitors to post on”) before suggesting that First Lady Melania Trump — who, reportedly, is a fan of Baldwin’s impression — has asked Baldwin for tickets.

Alex rarely interacts with people who tweet him, but did shoot Alec a tweet in response to the scenario that brought them together again — joking, “Let’s get a drink when this is all over.”

“When all of this is over, it would be fun to catch up with that guy,” Alex tells PEOPLE of Alec, whom he’s never met but would like to.

As for Trump, Alex was just impressed that he bothered to delete the tweet and reissue it with corrected spelling.

“That is the shocking thing,” Alex says.