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Covfefe

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Tweet from @realdonaldtrump reading "Despite the constant negative press covfefe"
Original Twitter post
U.S. President Donald J. Trump

"Covfefe" is a word coined, possibly inadvertently, by U.S. President Donald Trump at 12:06 AM EDT on May 31, 2017, when he sent a message from his iPhone's Twitter app,[1] which read, "Despite the constant negative press covfefe".

The apparently incomplete tweet was liked and retweeted hundreds of thousands of times, making it one of the most popular tweets of 2017, as people speculated on the meaning of "covfefe".[2] By 5:48 AM ET, the tweet was deleted,[3] and at 6:09 AM ET, Trump's account tweeted, "Who can figure out the true meaning of 'covfefe' ??? Enjoy!"[4]

Reaction

Reaction to the tweet spawned numerous Internet memes and jokes.[2] Dara Lind argued in a Vox.com article that Trump's unwillingness to admit that "covfefe" was a typo was typical of his administration's tendency to spin his mistakes and impulsive actions as part of a master plan.[5] Scott Adams argued that Trump was smart to leave the word uncorrected because it created a "trap door" in the script, allowing his audience to laugh. Right-wing radio host Laura Ingraham tweeted that "covfefe" is a new word meaning the collusion between the Democrats, the press, and the establishment against "the people."[6]

"#Covfefe" became Twitter's number one trending hashtag within an hour of the tweet,[7] and "covfefe" was rapidly being shared as a meme in photoshopped images and via social media,[8] garnering more than 127,000 retweets and more than 162,000 likes, making it one of Trump's most popular tweets in months.[2]

The European media reported on the incident, focusing mainly on the reactions on Twitter that followed.[9][10][11][12] Hillary Clinton joked at a Q&A session, "You don't have a high enough classification to know what 'covfefe' means."

Los Angeles Times columnist Matt Pearce wrote, "Covfefe had become one of those exhausting cultural events that, from time to time, inspires a collective response so that we feel in contact with each other, or at least do not feel left out."[13]

Interpretation

The tweet began in a similar fashion to messages from March that Trump opened with, "Despite what you hear in the press," or "Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS".[14]

The most common theory is that given the context, Trump meant to type "coverage."[15][16][17] Others have put forth the possibility that it could be a codeword, neologism, or proper noun. The lack of punctuation suggests that Trump may have been interrupted mid-tweet.[18] Some Trump supporters hailed the tweet as an example of how Trump expresses what he really thinks rather than looking to polls or focus testing before putting forth his ideas and new words.[19]

A Fusion poll attracted more than 42,000 votes concerning the correct pronunciation of covfefe.[20] Chris Geidner argued that "the 'v' is silent; it's a classy word" and encouraged a pronunciation of "cō•feef (stress is on the secnd syllable)".[21] Linguist Gretchen McCulloch noted that existing words provide little guidance on covfefe's pronunciation, and that the sequence of the voiced phoneme /v/ and unvoiced /f/ could be awkward to articulate.[22]

In an article on CNN entitled "'Covfefe' tells you all you need to know about Donald Trump", journalist Chris Cillizza summarized the incident as "dumb" on its face. However, he stated that trying to find out about the meaning of the word, as Trump suggested in his follow-up tweet, is a waste of time, writing, "it's far more worthwhile to take a big step back and look at the situation that leads to the President of the United States tweeting, poorly, at 12:06 a.m. about the bad press he gets. What we have today — and, really, what we have had since the day Trump came into the White House — is a deeply isolated President who spends lots of time, particularly at night and in the early morning, watching TV and tweeting. That lack of discipline reveals that there is simply no one who can tell Trump "no." Or at least no one whom he will listen to."[23]

Peter Sokolowski, an editor-at-large of Merriam-Webster, told The Washington Post that people tried to look up the definition of the word at the dictionary's website.[24]

Spicer explanation

During the May 31 White House press briefing, Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News asked White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the tweet and if there was any concern about the president sending out "incoherent" tweets that stay up for hours. Spicer responded, "The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant" and would offer no other explanation. This explanation spawned additional media attention and criticism for its cryptic meaning, with commentators unsure if Spicer was joking or not.[25]

Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg, writing for the National Review, noted that Spicer did not appear to be joking, and that was alarming. "[Not joking] is so much worse," Goldberg wrote, adding that there were two interpretations of Spicer's comment:[26]

"The first [explanation] is that Spicer is telling the truth and that 'covfefe' is some esoteric code word only a few people know. If that’s the case — which, again, I highly doubt — that is bananas. The president of the United States shouldn't be in the business of sending cryptic messages over Twitter. Or it's a lie. If that's the case, it means that this White House cannot admit even the smallest of errors. It means that Sean Spicer feels compelled to protect the myth of Trumpian infallibility at all costs, which tells us far more about this White House than Trump's silly tweet ever did. It also means that this White House would rather have the world think that the president is transmitting secret code phrases like some handler from Telefon than admit to a typo."[26]

On May 31, 2017, President Trump sent out a followup tweet, saying "Who can figure out the true meaning of 'covfefe' ??? Enjoy!". Liberal pundit Kevin Drum noted "This is Trump making an actual joke and taking himself less than seriously. I've never seen him do that before."[27]

See also

References

  1. ^ Elle Hunt (May 31, 2017). "What is covfefe? Donald Trump baffles with late night Twitter post". The Guardian. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b c Travis M. Andrews (May 31, 2017). "Trump targets 'negative press covfefe' in garbled midnight tweet that becomes worldwide joke". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Louis Nelson (May 31, 2017). "Trump jokes on Twitter: Who can figure out 'covfefe'?". Politico. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  4. ^ Joshua Berlinger (May 31, 2017). "Covfefe: When a typo goes viral". CNN. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Covfefe
  6. ^ Reuters: Trump's 'covfefe' tweet leaves Internet guessing
  7. ^ Jon Russell (May 31, 2017). "With one misspelled word, President Trump gifts Twitter the #covfefe meme". TechCrunch.
  8. ^ Matt Flegenheimer (May 31, 2017). "Trump Tweets 'Covfefe,' and a Waiting World Supplies the Punchlines". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "Trump typo: Who can figure out the true meaning of 'covfefe'?". Newsbeat. BBC. May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  10. ^ David Bach. "«Covfefe»: Mystisk Trump-tweet ble vitse-maraton" [«Covfefe»: Mystical Trump-Tweet became the white marathon]. Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ "Trumps mystiska tweet får Twitter att explodera – "covfefe"" [Trumps mysterious tweet makes Twitter explode - "covfefe"]. Expressen (in Swedish). May 31, 2017. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Markus Decker. "US-Präsident am Smartphone: So könnte Trump die „Covfefe"-Nachricht weitergetippt haben" [US President on the smartphone: Trump could have typed the "Covfefe" message further] (in German). Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  13. ^ 'Covfefe' shows how we are all wasting our finite lives
  14. ^ Andrew Griffin (May 31, 2017). "Donald Trump just inexplicably tweeted 'covfefe'. Here's what it might mean". The Independent. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ Niamh McIntyre (May 31, 2017). "Donald Trump just sent a tweet that can only be described as utterly baffling". The Independent. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  16. ^ Alexander Nazaryan (May 31, 2017). "Why we'll be telling our grandchildren about Trump's "covfefe" tweet". Newsweek. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  17. ^ "Covfefe: Donald Trump might have created the word of 2017 in a late night Tweet". Financial Express. May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: no-break space character in |title= at position 74 (help)
  18. ^ Richard Hartley-Parkinson (May 31, 2017). "What does covfefe mean and why was Donald Trump tweeting so late at night?". Metro. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ Olivia Nuzzi. "To Trump Supporters, 'Covfefe' Is Another Way He's Making America Great Again". New York. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  20. ^ Sean Smyth (May 31, 2017). "Covfefe: What is it? Why did Trump tweet about it?". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ Jessica McBride (May 31, 2017). "POLL: How Does One Pronounce Trump's 'Covfefe' Anyway?". Heavy.com. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ David Shariatmadari (May 31, 2017). "Covfefe is a word now. Deal with it". The Guardian. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  23. ^ Chris Cillizza (May 31, 2017). "'Covfefe' tells you all you need to know about Trump". CNN. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ Phillips, Kristine (May 31, 2017). "After months of trolling Trump, Merriam-Webster has no words about 'covfefe'". Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ "Sean Spicer addresses 'covfefe' kerfuffle: Trump 'and a small group of people know exactly what he meant'". Business Insider. May 31, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  26. ^ a b Goldberg, Jonah (May 31, 2017). "L'affaire Covfefe". National Review. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  27. ^ Kevin Drum (May 31, 2017). "Donald Trump Makes a Joke". Mother Jones. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
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