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A Waitress Faces Backlash for Her 9/11 Tweet After Serving George W. Bush

Jet fuel may not be able to melt steel beams, but a reference to said meme sure as hell can set your entire life aflame in the most spectacular of ways.
Photo via Flickr user TheBushCenter

Jet fuel may not be able to melt steel beams, but a reference to said meme sure as hell can set your entire life aflame in the most spectacular of ways.

It's a lesson that waitress Leisa Smith has learned the hard way after setting fire to the Internet with a tweet posted following her recent experience serving former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura. In the tweet—which has since been taken down—Leisa appears in a photo happily standing next to the former president and First Lady of the United States with the following caption: "Bush did 911 but he did me a solid and left me a hella tip #."

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Bush apparently ordered a burger with onion rings and a glass of water. He gave strict instructions that no mustard be allowed anywhere near the burger. Then he left a whopping 200-percent tip.

In case you were wondering, my buddy George absolutely hates mustard and his wife doesn't let him drink caffeine

— leviosa (@leisaiscool) March 23, 2016

Smith took to Twitter and wrote a tweet she thought her 200 or so followers would get a kick out of, referencing conspiracy theories that allege that Bush somehow cooked up 9/11. She says she meant it all to be just a "sarcastic joke"—but the internet has proven, once again, that it simply does not understand sarcasm. The tweet went viral, and the trolls came out and had a field day, as they do.

Smith quickly took the tweet down, replacing it with a pinned tweet saying that she "Didn't mean to make fun of 9/11 or the people involved." Smith would like the world to know that "George W. Bush and his wife were the nicest people I have ever met and had I known the tweet would blow out of proportion like this I would have never tweeted it."

pic.twitter.com/K9TuS6SaBO — leviosa (@leisaiscool) March 27, 2016

Smith's "George did 9/11" reference seems to date back to an infamous interview with Charlie Sheen back in 2006. Conspiracy theorists have alleged that the Bush and/or the government were really behind the 9/11 attacks; a central point of their argument is their claim that "jet fuel can't melt steel beams." Smith says she was just trying to mock these theories, but the point seems to be wholly lost amid the cacophony.

PSA I DONT THINK BUSH ACTUALLY DID 911

— leviosa (@leisaiscool) March 25, 2016

Meanwhile, Bush's good deed—the big tip he left for Smith—has certainly gone punished, as such deeds are wont to do. But although a $40 tip on a $21.47 restaurant bill can't be considered loose change in any real sense, Bush sure as hell isn't going to miss it. After all, Time reports that he has amassed a fortune of around $20 million dollars.

Lesson learned? For the denizens of the Internet: no, of course not. For Smith: undoubtedly, yes.