“Covfefe” – the word unleashed by former US President Donald Trump in a most random post on X still doesn’t have an official meaning, yet it means something when used in a sentence.
It was May 2017. Shortly after midnight, the then US President Donald Trump hurled out a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) with the mysterious word “Covfefe.”
Trump’s ‘tweet’ at 12:06 am ET read: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe”(.)
That’s it. No full stop. Not even a full sentence. The post on his feed baffled the media, with many struggling to find the meaning of the word. It became viral in no time.
“Was it a typo? Did he post it by mistake? Was it a goof-up? What did Trump mean by Covfefe? Is it even a word? What does it mean? How is it even pronounced?” No dictionary had an answer.
Donald Trump is running again for the US president’s post in the 2024 November elections. The Republican is contesting against Kamala Harris, US Vice President and Democrat. Trump was elected the US President in 2016. He was in the office till 2020, when Joe Biden took over the reins.
As the world look forward to the US general elections, here’s a flashback to the “Trumpian Twitter typo” that stormed the internet and became Trump’s one the famous – or rather infamous – tweets
ever.
Internet chaos, jokes and memes
It was six hours of pure internet chaos. Many on social media wondered if Trump meant “coffee” or media “coverage” by writing “covfefe”. According to reports, several conspiracy theorists concluded that the social media post was a message written partially in Arabic and that “covfefe” could be translated to “I will stand up.”
The hashtag “#covfefe” was, at the time, the number-one trending hashtag in the world. It was liked more than 1,62,000 times and retweeted more than 1,27,000 times within six hours, CNN reported. It became one of his most popular tweets ever.
Even former US President Hillary Clinton got in on the joke, saying, “People in covfefe houses shouldn’t throw covfefe” when he attacked her on Twitter.
In 2022, the Daily Show joked, “Five years ago tonight, Trump tweeted “covfefe”, but the story of Covfefe actually began many years before.” Watch Trevor Noha’s hilarious “story” — “Covfefe, based on a true typo” – here.
Covfefe ‘made sense’
The viral post was taken down after six hours, but it didn’t make Trump shy away from what had taken the internet by storm. As US Today correctly put it, “instead of pretending it never happened, he [Trump] leaned into it.”
“Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’??? Enjoy!” Trump said nearly six hours after the original post was made.
Then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer had said there was nothing to worry about Trump’s post. He had said, “I think the President and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.
Covfefe, a word in dictionary?
Covfefe is not a word in the dictionary. Even Merriam-Webster said it “regretted checking Twitter” and took “…the troll game to a whole new level”.
Dictionary.com defines Covfefe as “a viral typo for “coverage” from a tweet by Donald Trump. The meaning and intention of the mysterious word was the source of much internet discussion and humour.”
In early 2018, Lake Superior State University said Covfefe is “an impulsive typo, born into a 140-character universe, somehow missed by the autocorrect feature.”
Covfefe – a phenomenon
Eventually, Covfefe became a word to refer to a gaffe “made by other public figures, businesses, and organizations in public discourse”.
In a rare move, a member of Congress introduced the “COVFEFE Act”. It was short for Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement Act. “It’s a silly name but a serious issue,” US Representative Mike Quigley had said in June 2017.
A “Covfefe Cafe” also emerged. Its website informed, “Covfefe Cafe was inspired by the desire to represent the heart of America. Some leading “patriotic” coffee brands have hoodwinked Americans with 2nd Amendment branding, while subsequently donating to causes such as ActBlue and Barack Obama…”
Currently, this ‘Covfefe Cafe” offers “First Time Customers Discount” using the code “MAGA” – a political slogan or a movement most recently popularised by Donald Trump. MAGA is short for Make America Great Again
In 2018, Northern Michigan’s Lake Superior State University included the Trumpian Twitter typo “covfefe” on its annual “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness”.
Later that year, Donald Trump seemed to have solved the mystery, telling the world how “covfefe” is pronounced. Addressing the viral internet trend “Laurel-Yanny debate”, Trump weighed in, saying, “I hear covfefe.”
A year later (in 2022), Trump joined his own TRUTH Social with a shoutout post: “I’M BACK! #COVFEFE”. In its analysis, the Atlantic reported that Trump “knows how to captivate people, how to command and divert the attention of the masses”.
