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.
Many media outlets presumed that he had meant to type "coverage".[5][6][7][8]Sean Spicer, thenWhite House Press Secretary, stated: "I think the President and a small group of people know exactly what he meant."[9]
The tweet attracted intense attention in the news and on social media, quickly becoming aviral phenomenon. Both the word and tweet produced a variety of cultural, economic, and social influences. For example, theVolfefe index (for "volatility" and "covfefe"), created byJPMorgan Chase in 2019, measured the impact of President Trump's tweets on the U.S. bond yields.[10] "Covfefe" was one of Trump's most famous tweets.[11][12][13]
"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,[14] and created a viralInternet meme on the morning of May 31.[15] Thehashtag#covfefe had been used on the Internet 1.4 million times within 24 hours of Trump's tweet.[16]
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!"[17] White House press secretarySean 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."[9][18]TheGoogle Search term "covfefe" surpassed the search term "Paris climate" (in reference to the2015 Paris Climate agreement) on May 31, the same day Trump indicated that the U.S. would withdraw from the agreement.[19]
Trump referenced the word in May 2018 by pronouncing it in a White House video about the auditory illusionYanny or Laurel. He joked near the end of the video: "I hear 'covfefe'."[2]
An analyst forThe Washington Post, Philip Bump, wrote in July 2019 that the covfefe tweet represented Trump's refusal to admit even minor misstatements.[20] Other critics in the media expressed similar opinions.[21][22]
Writing forThe Atlantic in January 2019, journalistAdrienne 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."[23]
The covfefememe produced a variety of follow-up effects in culture, language, and business. While marking the first anniversary of the covfefe tweet in May 2018, aUSA Today article noted: "But did the president know what he had wrought on U.S. culture? The memes. The songs. The jokes."[24]
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.[26]Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable added an entry for "covfefe" to its 20th edition in October 2018.[27]
Subsequent misspellings and mis-speakings by Trump have been compared in the media to the covfefe tweet.[29][30][31][32][33] "Covfefe" is also often invoked when discussing gaffes made by other public figures, businesses, and organizations in public discourse.[34][35][36]
Other uses of "covfefe" involve word play on similarity with the word "coffee".[37] Examples include a coffee shop called "Covfefe Café",[38] a beer called"'No Collusion' Russian Imperial Coffee 'Covfefe' Stout",[39] various covfefe coffee drinks,[40][41] an alcoholic coffee cocktail "Covfefe",[42] a coffee and tea ad byAmul,[43] 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.[44][45][46]
The covfefe tweet quickly spawned a variety of merchandise items (e.g., T-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, and bags) bearing covfefe-related inscriptions.[50][51]
Both supporters and opponents of Trump in 21 U.S. states obtained customized "Covfefe"license plates by February 2018.[52] The state ofGeorgia prohibits the use of this word onvanity license plates.[53]
A 2018Google Chrome extension called Covfefe allowsTwitter users to correct misspellings in their earlier tweets.[54]
Upholding the denial of one such application, a January 2019 decision byTrademark Trial and Appeal Board of theUSPTO concluded that the word "covfefe" was too commonly used in a variety of contexts and therefore cannot be trademarked for any specific product.[55] At least 40trademark applications have been filed with theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office for various kinds of covfefe-themed merchandise; none of those applications have been granted as of March 2019.[56]
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.[57] The name "volfefe" is aportmanteau of the words "volatility" and "covfefe".[10]
The grand strategy video gameStellaris uses Covfefe as one of the names that can be generated for astar system on a map.[65]
Since the release of the 1.12 version of sandbox video gameMinecraft, one of the random texts displayed in the main menu, is "The true meaning of covfefe".[66][user-generated source]
Following the creation of Trump's own social networkTruth Social, he has stated that he will remain on Truth Social as his primary social media platform.[67][68][69] On April 29, 2022, Trump used the Covfefe meme in his second post to Truth Social, posting the message "I'M BACK! #COVFEFE".[70]
On August 17, 2025, Trump made a Truth Social post only saying "bela" with unknown intention. It was compared to the covfefe post.[71]
^Kooser, Amanda (December 10, 2018)."Donald Trump #SmockingGun typo sets Twitter on fire".CNET. RetrievedSeptember 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. RetrievedSeptember 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. RetrievedSeptember 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. RetrievedSeptember 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 fromthe original on February 5, 2020. RetrievedSeptember 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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