Covfefe

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About

"Covfefe" (pronounced "cuv-fey-fey"^[14]) is a misspelling of the word "coverage" mistakenly tweeted by President Donald Trump in late May 2017. The tweet was left up for more than six hours before being deleted, leading to a slew of puns, jokes, and confusion, resulting in #covfefe becoming the #1 trending hashtag in the world and prompting coverage from multiple news outlets.

Origin

Just after midnight in Washington D.C. on May 31st, 2017, Trump tweeted "Despite the constant negative press covfefe". According to CNN,^[1] as of 4:00 AM, the tweet had gained over 108,000 retweets and 135,000 likes.

Spread

Instantly after the tweet, a deluge of jokes about "covfefe" appeared on Twitter. Some of the most popular involved making puns on words "covfefe" sounded similar to. Some popular examples include a tweet by @JacobOller^[2] which made a joke about it sounding like "coffee" that gained over 6,500 retweets (shown below, left), and another by @xlxElementalxlx^[3] that made a joke about it sounding like "cocaine" out of the mouth of the Dave Chappelle character Tyrone Biggums that gained over 800 retweets (shown below, right). Some of these jokes were compiled in a Twitter Moment^[4] that morning.

However, as the tweet remained up, more and more confusion as to what happened with Trump began to spread through Twitter. Some wondered if he had in fact had suffered a medical emergency halfway through a tweet, explaining why the tweet had stayed up for so long.

By 6:00 a.m. that morning, the tweet had finally been deleted. At 6:07, Trump tweeted "Who can figure out the true meaning of "covfefe" ??? Enjoy!" (shown below).^[5] The entire incident was covered by news outlets including CNN,^[1] The New York Times,^[6] NPR,^[7] and many more.

Meanwhile on Reddit, a number of meme-focused communities quickly began to create myriad memes about "covfefe." Dozens of posts appeared on /r/MemeEconomy that morning referencing Covfefe, the most popular of which, a parody of the Trump's First Order of Business exploitable posted by simgasm,^[8] gained over 23,000 points (shown below, left). A thread was also posted to /r/OutOfTheLoop^[9] inquiring about covfefe. A subreddit devoted to the gaffe, /r/covfefe,^[10] was also created. There, the top post, also by simgasm,^[11] uses the Ancient Aliens template and has over 16,400 points (shown below, right).

The gaffe also was referenced in dozens of posts on /r/dankmemes. Some popular examples include a post by redpilldropper,^[12] which suggested the translation of "covfefe" was "Heil Hitler" which gained over 2,400 points (shown below, left). Another post by JiminyG^[13] used the Sleeping Shaq template and gained over 650 points (shown below, right).

On May 31st, 2017, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary chimed in on Trump's bewildering tweet with a cheeky response via its Twitter account, which went on to garner more than 221,000 likes over the next year. That same day, Oxford Dictionaries also highlighted "covfefe" as the "coinage of the day" via Twitter, with its definition entirely substituted by a series of question marks (shown below).

Various Examples

Personalized License Plates

On June 2nd, 2017, CNN reported that drivers in at least 21 states have successfully registered COVFEFE as their personalized license plates, with Nebraskan resident Evan Milton claiming the term within five hours of Trump's original tweet.

COVFEFE Act

On June 12th, 2017, Democratic Representative Mike Quigley of Illinois introduced the "Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically For Engagement" (COVFEFE) Act, which would amend the Presidential Records Act to require the storage of all presidential tweets and social media interactions by the National Archives. In a press release,^[15] Quigley argued that "tweets are powerful" and that "the President must be held accountable for every post." That day, posts about the proposed act reached the front page of the /r/politics^[16] and /r/technology^[17] subreddits.

Trademark Applications

On July 18th, 2017, Quartz^[20] reported that the United States Patent and Trademark Office had received 35 applications requesting to claim the word "Covfefe," along with several variations like "Covfefe Cup," "Covefe Coffee" and "Covfefe carry on vigilantly fighting evil forever" (shown below).

Furthermore, Quartz' inquiry revealed that the majority of applications proposed goods and services in apparel, although only three out of all applicants stated their "intent to use" in commercial business.