Donald Trump, America’s Twitter president, struck again in the early hours of May 31, delivering the following cryptic tweet: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.” It seems likely that Trump intended to say something about “negative press coverage” but made a typo and accidentally hit send. Perhaps he fell asleep halfway through a sentence, phone in hand. Either way, the president didn’t acknowledge the bizarre tweet until 6am EST, when he attempted to joke about it:
Who can figure out the true meaning of "covfefe" ??? Enjoy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017
The original tweet has been deleted, but everyone on Twitter still professes to be mystified by covfefe, and the nonsense word has become a genuine meme. Jokes speculating about the true meaning of covfefe peaked overnight:
This is #covfefe translated from Russian. pic.twitter.com/1Im7ZzLO0Y
— Kristina Wong ❄️ (@mskristinawong) May 31, 2017
New York's hottest nightclub is #Covfefe. It has everything: Russian entanglements, spray tans, creepy handshakes, surprise trade wars. pic.twitter.com/aldqPBQvKw
— Sarah Rumpf (@rumpfshaker) May 31, 2017
Today's secret word is #covfefe! You remember what to do when someone says the secret word, right? #screamrealloud! 😱 pic.twitter.com/63fe7s8FGL
— Pee-wee Herman (@peeweeherman) May 31, 2017
— Dami Lee (@dami_lee) May 31, 2017
covfefe
c – can
o – our
v – very
f – fascist
e – executive officer
f – figure out how to do
e – enything right— mita (@th0tcouture) May 31, 2017
#covfefe pic.twitter.com/ESRqgy1Rsg
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) May 31, 2017
🎵So no one told you life was gonna be this way
[Clap clap clap clap]
Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's #covfefe 🎵
— Essential Kiku. Sacrificial Otter. (@KikuOtter) May 31, 2017
https://twitter.com/coslive/status/869950468520366080 Parody accounts instantly popped up, and they even started interacted with each other:
Sometimes I love Twitter so much I hope it never, ever leaves us. #covfefe pic.twitter.com/AfrsSNogD0
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) May 31, 2017
Even the Philadelphia Police joked about it:
Roads are still slick from last night's rain. Please use your wipers and drive with covfefe
— Philadelphia Police (@PhillyPolice) May 31, 2017
For many, covfefe is yet another sign of Trump’s incompetence and incurable addiction to tweeting.
When you're deep in #covfefe memes but realize that the man responsible for the tweet also has the nuclear codes pic.twitter.com/uLJXrhR0ch
— Thoth The Atlantean 🐱 (@al1encr) May 31, 2017
Trump deleting his "covfefe" tweet is a nice reminder that we can just remove awful mistakes that embarrass us and move on.
— Tim Siedell (@badbanana) May 31, 2017
https://twitter.com/Bez/status/869932955665395713
I just no longer find trump trending topics or memes funny. I get sad and angry and depressed. Fuck covfefe, fuck it all, stupid idiot
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 31, 2017
For others, it’s all fun and covfefe until the president pulls the U.S. out of the Paris climate accords, an agreement among 195 nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
*laughing nervously* more like covfefe deal, am I right pic.twitter.com/EIJKNg5VDs
— frightshark (@FrightShark) May 31, 2017
When u see another funny covfefe tweet but ur thinking about the Paris agreement pic.twitter.com/pFxUbUA4RM
— rachel glenn (@_rachelglenn) May 31, 2017
welp he's not dead, y'all took covfefe too damn far, and now i'm lying in bed panicking about the future of health care/paris accord
— b (@curseoffeeling) May 31, 2017
https://twitter.com/zdarsky/status/869911158844739585 Regardless of what you think it means, the consensus is that covfefe peaked early and hard. If you missed it last night, it was over before you woke up. The covfefe meme backlash has already begun:
Let 👏 the 👏 morning 👏 crowd 👏 have 👏 covfefe 👏
— Nick Douglas (@toomuchnick) May 31, 2017
is covfefe the fastest halflife decay of any meme in human history
we broke our backs lifting moloch to heaven
— Anthony Oliveira (@meakoopa) May 31, 2017
https://twitter.com/max_read/status/869886203251830784
I have muted
the word
covfefe
on twitterand which
u were probably
saving
for your tweetsForgive me
ur tweets were
so dumb
and so bad— Madison Malone Kircher (@4evrmalone) May 31, 2017
These are crazy times we live in, when an old man with a smartphone can mangle a tweet and start one of the biggest memes of the year. Don’t be sad if you missed it, though. The whole thing was a huge pile of covfefe.