Wait...WTF???

[PCIntern]

Shouldn’t it be “it started out as a mountain but turned out to be a molehill”?
Not “mouse”?

President Malaprop.

[underpants]

1. I've always heard it as molehill

[dewsgirl]

2. It's a mole hill. He's an idiot.

[rogerashton]

3. perhaps the idiom is different in Russian. EOM

[Lindsay]

4. Yeah, I had to go searching for it,

but I'd read this morning that it is, indeed, a Russian idiom.

Link to tweet

Text for the twitter-deprived:

Here is some context as to the expression Putin used during his chat with Trump. It’s popular in Russia. ”Senator Pushkov, a senior deputy in Russia’s upper-house Federation Council, described the Mueller report as “a mountain that birthed a dead mouse.””

[OldEurope]

8. It is a quote from Horace.

In his "ars poetica" Horace wrote: "parturient montes. nascetur ridiculus mus". Translation: The mountain was in labor, a tiny mouse was born.
This is a popular saying in Germany, too.

[PCIntern]

9. Fairly fascinating. Thanks!!! nt

[lunatica]

10. Can you explain in what context it's used?

It’s easy to see how a small mound on the ground would be exaggerated into a mountain, but on the face of it what does a mountain giving birth to a mouse mean?

[OldEurope]

12. The context is for example:

Someone announces a huge betterment, like changing the lives of many poor people, or a cure for cancer. And then it turns out it was only a new recipe with some wild herbs.

In US politics it could be a president declaring the overcoming of a rogue state like North Korea and then achieving zero. You see the irony….

[lunatica]

18. Thanks!

It seems to be like a mountain really being nothing more than a molehill. The opposite action. Like the scary booming Wizard of Oz being just a small man behind the curtain.

[Hekate]

17. Fascinating -- thank you! We only know it as "trying to make a mountain out of a molehill"...

...but I like it flipped around like this -- that the mountain already exists, but produces only a "riduculus mus," something insignificant.

[Ohiogal]

5. Don't any conservatives

know how to speak English?

[Siwsan]

6. Another sign of his developing dementia

That's my guess.

[UniteFightBack]

7. He was quoting his good buddy Poots. I think we all understood what Pooty meant. nt

[spanone]

11. I'm just so proud that the man who interfered with our election gets to weigh in on it's report

and that our 'president' is quoting him. what thee fuck?

[NastyRiffraff]

14. Trump will try to learn Russian next

but he can barely speak English, so he'll fail at that, too.

[UTUSN]

13. To be fair, English isn't his first language. (Your choice for whom "his/he" is.)

[PCIntern]

15. Now THAT is funny!!!! nt

[UTUSN]

19. Am a late bloomer

[lpbk2713]

16. Don't expect too much from the Asshole-in-Chief.

There aren't any surprises that way.