Remember when John Lewis, the computer science lecturer from Virginia, was mistaken on Twitter as the landmark British department store, leading thousands of members of the public to inundate him with passionate messages about their Christmas advert? ‘Thanks for the feels @johnlewis’ one woman wrote. ‘I never touched you! I wasn’t even in the country!’ he replied.
Well, now the online identity mix-up mayhem has found another salt of the earth victim: Liz Trussell. Yup, not a parody account but a real woman who has been tweeting from @Liztruss since 2009 has been sent thousands of messages intended for the British prime minister Liz Truss. Yikes.
Despite snagging the now significant Twitter handle @Liztruss, it’s important to make clear Liz Trussel is not the leader of the UK. Her bio might read ‘Party Leader’ but it’s relatively clear she’s in charge of a knees up rather than a political party: ‘Vegas booked,’ one tweet written before her impromptu dive into current affairs read. ‘Awesome weekend! Lots of doggie walks, fudge eating and alcohol drinking,’ read another.
The Liz Truss (@trussliz) intended messages Liz Trussel (@liztruss) has been subject to, have inevitably varied in tone thanks to the volatile nature of Twitter. Whether congratulations on her appointment as Prime Minister, intense outrage over inflation or actual anger about her incompetence, Liz Trussel has had inordinate amounts of fun with both the positive and negative attention she never asked for.
From Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson to the account for the actual Royal Family and the news station CNN, high profile figures have mistakenly mentioned the wrong Liz in their posts and as a result of her subsequent witticisms, she now has almost 37,000 (well-deserved) followers.
‘@LizTruss still doesn't get it - Boris Johnson did *not* get Brexit done, his myriad mistakes over Covid cost countless lives, & he leaves having disgraced his office,’ raged Lucas at who she thought was the Conservative party leader. ‘And I bet she likes cake,’ another Twitter user added to which Trussell confirmed: ‘I love cake’.
Meanwhile, when Swedish PM Magdalena Tweeted (and swiftly deleted) her willingness to meet who she thought was the new leader of the UK, Trussell cheerfully replied: ‘Looking forward to a visit soon! Get the meatballs ready.’
Little is really known about Liz Trussell. We slid into her DMs for the purpose of this piece (and the fact we really want to be her friend) but, alas, no response yet. Clad in a pink sequin detailed dress with her hands in the air and a golden tan ready to rival Blake Lively’s, her profile picture reveals what we already expected from her posts: serious hun energy.
Since going viral when Liz Truss was elected Prime Minister earlier this month, Liz Trussle has kept on top of world events. ‘Think this one’s a bit above my pay grade,’ she said when CNN tagged her in a post about Ukraine. ‘Whoopsie!! There goes the next trip to Vegas,’ she replied when users lambasted her for crashing the pound. ‘Hope I’m going to be the one of the ones who pay less,’ she admitted when Robert Preston outlined the scheme to freeze unit costs of energy.
And as whispers began about letters of no confidence reportedly being sent in about Liz Truss after just 23 days of her leadership, Liz Trussle finally acknowledged the endless people calling for her to become the leader of the UK instead: ‘I’m honestly beginning to think maybe you lot are right,' she said. 'I would do a better job.'