With 'Covfefe' Tweet, Trump Leaves Internet Guessing
US President Donald Trump. Credit: Reuters
Washington: A midnight tweet by Donald J. Trump unleashed a wave of mocking speculation by Internet users wondering what the US president meant by writing "covfefe" in an apparently unfinished Twitter post that lingered online for hours.
At 12:06 am ET (04:06 GMT), Trump wrote: "Despite the constant negative press covfefe.”
The post, since deleted, was followed by a Trump message at 6:09 am ET (10:09 GMT) that sought to put a playful tone on the misfire, saying, "Who can figure out the true meaning of covfefe? Enjoy!"
The original message, which seemed to have been the start of a complaint about media coverage, soon became a top trend on Twitter.
Some users sought clarification from the dictionary company Merriam-Webster. They did not get a definition but did draw a response. "Wakes up. Checks Twitter. Uh... Lookups for...Regrets checking Twitter...Goes back to bed," the dictionary tweeted. "
Asked at a briefing whether people should be concerned that the president sent out an incoherent tweet and left it up for hours, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said: "No."
"I think the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant," Spicer added when asked why the tweet remained uncorrected for so long on Trump's personal @realDonaldTrump account.
Democratic US senator Al Franken, in a CNN interview on Wednesday morning, joked, "A covfefe is a Yiddish term for I got to go to bed now", dismissing the tweet as a late-night error.
Conservative commentator and radio show host Laura Ingraham also tweeted in response to Trump's post that, "It's so bad- the collusion between the Democrats and the press, the establishment versus the people, that we needed a new word to describe it all. #Covfefe!"
Trump's "covfefe" message drew renewed attention to his prolific Twitter habit.
The Republican president has said using Twitter helps him speak directly to Americans and bypass the media, which he has long criticised. When asked in the past about other Trump tweets, White House spokesman Sean Spicer has said the posts speak for themselves.
Trump was relatively quiet on Twitter during a nine-day trip to Middle East and Europe but resumed tweeting after returning home on Saturday. Moments after tweeting about the "meaning of covfefe" on Wednesday, he turned to Twitter again to blast the Russia probes and address a series of other issues.
This article went live on June first, two thousand seventeen, at twenty-five minutes past one in the afternoon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
