Donald Trump’s ‘Covfefe’ that caused internet chaos for six hours: has the mystery been solved yet? A legacy

‘Covfefe’ – the word that former US President Donald Trump unleashed on X in a very random post still has no official meaning, but when used in a sentence it does mean something.

It was May 2017. Shortly after midnight, then US President Donald Trump posted a message on X (formerly known as Twitter) with the mysterious word ‘Covfefe’.

Trump’s ‘tweet’ at 12:06 pm ET read: “Despite the constant negative press conference”(.)

That’s it. No problem. Not even a complete sentence. The post on his feed confused the media, with many struggling to find the meaning of the word. It became viral in no time.

“Was it a typo? Did he accidentally post it? Was it a gamble? 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 post of US president in the November 2024 elections. The Republican is competing against Kamala Harris, the US vice president and Democrat. Trump was elected president of the US in 2016. He remained in office until 2020, when Joe Biden took the reins.

As the world awaits the US general election, here’s a flashback to the ‘Trumpian Twitter typo’ that stormed the internet and became Trump’s most famous – or rather infamous – tweets ever.

Internet chaos, jokes and memes

It was six hours of pure internet chaos. Many on social media wondered whether Trump meant “coffee” or “media attention” by “covfefe.” According to reports, several conspiracy theorists concluded that the social media post was one written partly in Arabic and that “covfefe” could be translated as “I will rise.”

The hashtag “#covfefe” was the number one trending hashtag in the world at the time. It was liked over 1,62,000 times and retweeted over 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 Covfefe story actually started many years earlier.” Watch Trevor Noha’s hilarious ‘story’ here – ‘Covfefe, based on a real typo’.

Covfefe ‘made sense’

The viral post was deleted after six hours, but Trump did not shy away from what had taken the internet by storm. As US Today rightly put it, “instead of pretending it never happened, he has [Trump] leaned into it.”

“Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’??? Enjoy!” Trump said this nearly six hours after the original message was posted.

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 “reporting” from a tweet by Donald Trump. The meaning and intent of the mysterious word have been the source of much internet discussion and humor.”

In early 2018, Lake Superior State University said that Covfefe is “an impulsive typo, born in a 140-character universe, that is somehow missed by the autocorrect feature.”

Covfefe – a phenomenon

Ultimately, Covfefe became a word referring to a blunder “made by other public figures, companies and organizations in the public debate”.

In a rare move, a member of Congress introduced the “COVFEFE law”. It was an abbreviation for Communications Over Diverse Feeds Electronically for Engagement Act. “It’s a funny name, but a serious problem,” U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley said in June 2017.

A”Covfefe Café” also came up. The website stated: “Covfefe Cafe was inspired by a desire to represent the heart of America. Some leading “patriotic” coffee brands have fooled Americans with the 2nd Amendment brand name while then donating to charities like ActBlue and Barack Obama…”

Currently, this ‘Covfefe Cafe’ is offering ‘First Time Customers Discount’ using the code ‘MAGA’ – a political slogan or movement most recently popularized by Donald Trump. MAGA is an abbreviation of Make America Great Again

In 2018, Lake Superior State University in Northern Michigan included the Trumpian Twitter typo “covfefe” in its annual “List of words banned from the Queen’s English for misuse, overuse and general uselessness”.

Later that year, Donald Trump seemed to have solved the mystery by telling the world how to pronounce “covfefe”.. Trump addressed the viral internet trend “Laurel-Yanny debate,” saying, “I hear covfefe.”

A year later (in 2022), Trump joined his own TRUTH Social with a shoutout post: “I AM BACK! #COVFEFE”. In its analysis, the Atlantic reported that Trump “knows how to captivate people, how to divert and distract the attention of the masses.”