Six minutes after midnight (EDT) on May 31, 2017, Trump tweeted "Despite the constant negative press covfefe".[4] He deleted the tweet six hours later. White House Press SecretarySean Spicer stated, "I think the President and a small group of people know exactly what he meant."[5]
Initial tweet and public response
The tweet attracted intense attention in the news and on social media, quickly becoming a viral phenomenon. Both the word and tweet produced a variety of cultural, economic, and social influences. For example, the Volfefe index (for "volatility" and "covfefe"), created by JPMorgan Chase in 2019, measured the impact of President Trump's tweets on the U.S. bond yields.[6] "Covfefe" was one of Trump's most famous tweets.[7][8][9]
"Covfefe" quickly went viral and generated both jokes and speculations in social media and on the news about its meaning. It was retweeted more than 105,000 times, garnered more than 148,000 likes,[10] and created a viral Internet meme on the morning of May 31.[11] The hashtag#covfefe had been used on the Internet 1.4 million times within 24 hours of Trump's tweet.[12]
Trump never acknowledged that the tweet contained a mistyping. He instead tweeted again at 06:09 after deleting the original tweet: "Who can figure out the true meaning of 'covfefe' ??? Enjoy!"[13] White House press secretary Sean Spicer implied later that day that the tweet was not a typo but rather intentional: "I think the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant."[5][14]
The Google Search term "covfefe" surpassed the search term "Paris climate" (in reference to the 2015 Paris Climate agreement) on May 31, the same day Trump indicated that the U.S. would withdraw from the agreement.[15]
Trump referenced the word in May 2018 by pronouncing it in a White House video about the auditory illusion Yanny or Laurel. He joked near the end of the video: "I hear 'covfefe'."[2]
An analyst for The Washington Post, Philip Bump, wrote in July 2019 that the covfefe tweet represented Trump's refusal to admit even minor misstatements.[16] Other critics in the media expressed similar opinions.[17][18]
Subsequent references
Writing for The Atlantic in January 2019, journalist Adrienne LaFrance summarized the significance of the covfefe tweet: "Covfefe remains the tweet that best illustrates Trump's most preternatural gift: He knows how to captivate people, how to command, and divert the attention of the masses."[19]
The covfefe meme produced a variety of follow-up effects in culture, language, and business. While marking the first anniversary of the covfefe tweet in May 2018, a USA Today article noted: "But did the president know what he had wrought on U.S. culture? The memes. The songs. The jokes."[20]
In language and politics
Look up covfefe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The popular word game Words with Friends added "covfefe" to its dictionary in June 2017.[21]
Dictionary.com announced that "covfefe" topped its list of "unmatched queries" in October 2017 and continued to have the most user searches for a word without an entry.[22]Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable added an entry for "covfefe" to its 20th edition in October 2018.[23]
Subsequent misspellings and mis-speakings by Trump have been compared in the media to the covfefe tweet.[25][26][27][28][29] "Covfefe" is also often invoked when discussing gaffes made by other public figures, businesses, and organizations in public discourse.[30][31][32]
Other uses of "covfefe" involve word play on similarity with the word "coffee".[33] Examples include a coffee shop called "Covfefe Café",[34] a beer called "'No Collusion' Russian Imperial Coffee 'Covfefe' Stout",[35] various covfefe coffee drinks,[36][37] an alcoholic coffee cocktail "Covfefe",[38] a coffee and tea ad by Amul,[39] etc.
A protester holding a 'Truth not "Covfefe"' sign
Anti-Trump protesters at various events in 2019 also used signs featuring variations on the covfefe theme.[40][41][42]
The covfefe tweet quickly spawned a variety of merchandise items (e.g., T-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, and bags) bearing covfefe-related inscriptions.[46][47]
Both supporters and opponents of Trump in 21 U.S. states obtained customized "Covfefe" license plates by February 2018.[48] The state of Georgia prohibits the use of this word on vanity license plates.[49]
A 2018 Google Chrome extension called Covfefe allows Twitter users to correct misspellings in their earlier tweets.[50]
Upholding the denial of one such application, a January 2019 decision by Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the USPTO concluded that the word "covfefe" was too commonly used in a variety of contexts and therefore cannot be trademarked for any specific product.[51] At least 40 trademark applications have been filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for various kinds of covfefe-themed merchandise; none of those applications have been granted as of March 2019.[52]
Using inspiration from the covfefe tweet, JPMorgan Chase created a "Volfefe index" in September 2019 to measure the impact of Trump's tweets on the U.S. bond yields.[53] The name "volfefe" is a portmanteau of the words "volatility" and "covfefe".[6]
Following the creation of Trump's own social network Truth Social, he has stated that he will remain on Truth Social as his primary social media platform.[61][62][63] On April 29, 2022, Trump used the Covfefe meme in his second post to Truth Social, posting the message "I'M BACK! #COVFEFE".[64]
^Kooser, Amanda (December 10, 2018). "Donald Trump #SmockingGun typo sets Twitter on fire". CNET. Retrieved September 10, 2019. Twitter user Matthew Kick gave a humorous shout-out to one of Trump's most famous Twitter spellings of all time, the mysterious "covfefe" back in 2017
^Gstalter, Morgan (December 11, 2018). "George Conway mocks Trump's misspellings". The Hill. Retrieved September 10, 2019. Katyal, who previously worked under former President Obama, trolled some of Trump's most famous spelling errors by asking why Starbucks "cofefe" was always "smocking hot."
^Graham, David A. (September 5, 2019). "Trump's Most Pointless Lie". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 9, 2019. Not since "covfefe," a similarly absurdist episode, has Trump stuck so insistently to a pointless lie, though even that moment was over faster.
^"Trump's Alabama Dorian debacle shows he refuses to be wrong". al.com. Associated Press. September 6, 2019. Retrieved September 9, 2019. And even when Trump mistakenly tweeted the nonsensical word "covfefe" late one night, the president, instead of owning up to a typo or errant message, later sent Spicer to declare, "I think the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant."
^Lowin, Rebekah (June 7, 2017). "'Covfefe' Could Live On As Beer or Coffee". foodandwine.com. Archived from the original on February 5, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2019. It's a natural fit, after all; "covfefe" looks (and, depending on how you pronounce it, sounds) nearly identical to "coffee."
^Dennis, Sarah (2017). "Cedar Rapids by Miguel Arteta (review)". Middle West Review. 4 (1): 199–201. doi:10.1353/mwr.2017.0081. S2CID188964457. Although Raygun continues to release current events slogans beyond presidential elections (a recent shirt declares, "We have nothing to fear but covfefe"), the brand's primary offerings are local color slogans that simultaneously celebrate and satirize midwestern identity.
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