WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Trump confirmed Tuesday that his much-maligned typo "Smocking Gun" was actually intentional, being the first part of a rollout of new Common Core standards in spelling and vocabulary.

The president assured the nation the supposed error wasn't a mistake, but rather an intentional soft rollout of the Department of Education's revamped Common Core standards.

"I'm glad you all noticed the new Common Core spelling methods," he said in an address. "We're encouraging more creative approaches to arranging letters into words. Smoking? No good. Smocking? Now we're talking. This is big. It's the biggest update to spelling, maybe ever."

Trump also criticized Obama for not pushing the envelope further, claiming students' spelling skills remained static throughout his predecessor's tenure. "Spelling stagnated under Obama: the numbers were very bad. People were just spelling things the same old way. But we're gonna fix all that. We're gonna make speaking American great again."

"Besides, 'smock' is just really fun to say. Smock smock smock!"