Trump, it seems now, made an attempt to turn his embarrassing typo into an awkward joke, hoping that everyone will play along.
But whether it was a simple keyboard slip or the 70-year-old US President Donald Trump’s ‘senior moment’, his huge catalogue of Twitter bloopers regularly offers evidence that a spelling-challenged, speed-tweeter occupies the Oval Offic
“Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’ ??? Enjoy!” the American head of state tweeted hours later, after deleting the original, hilariously concerning one with the typo.
At 9:06 AM PST, Wednesday, Trump had written, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.”
During his election campaign last year, the former businessman had notably declared, “I’m very highly educated. I know words; I have the best words.”
Who can figure out the true meaning of “covfefe” ??? Enjoy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017
‘Media witch hunt’
The original message, which seemed to have been the start of a Trump complaint about media coverage, soon became a top trend on Twitter. The cryptic tweet sparked a flood of humour and ridicule on the Internet, but also highlighted the inability of his communications team to control White House messaging.
The word doesn’t exist in English or apparently any human language. Mock interpretations said it was Russian for “I resign”, ancient Egyptian for “media witch hunt”, or more unprintable things.
The Regent’s English Language Center in London wrote, “We can confirm that ‘covfefe’ is not an English word. Yet.”
Newsweek declared it the “word of the year – or century.”
The yet-to-be-properly-defined word also made its way into the Urban Dictionary, a website that collates online word submissions.
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 tweeted in response to Trump’s guess-the-meaning post that, “It’s so bad–the collusion b/t (between) the Dems & the press, the establ(ishment) vs the ppl(people), that we needed a new word to describe it all.
‘Small group of people know’
However, pressed later on the issue, White House spokesman Sean Spicer held tight to the “secret”, quipping, “The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.”
But on a serious note, it shows that four months into his administration, the US president’s unfiltered use of the medium remains unchecked. The consequence is deep turmoil in his communications staff.
The White House is rife with rumours that the boss is preparing mass firings, and this week, communications director Mike Dubke resigned just four months into the job.
For reporters as well as observers, these mistakes are symptomatic of the collective lack of experience and discipline in the White House.
Trump himself appears frustrated that he can’t get out the message he wants, privately and publicly expressing fury over a litany of bad headlines that he blames on his staff.
Silly or serious?
Trump’s tweets – complete with spelling errors, rants about “fake news” and even a mistweet at a British woman instead of his own daughter –often result in a collective sigh from both critics and backers, who wonder, ‘What next?’
The White House team has repeatedly fallen prey to embarrassing errors – a list of global attacks released in February included “Denmakr” (Denmark) and “San Bernadino” (San Bernardino).
When British Prime Minister Theresa May visited Washington, the presidential and vice-presidential agenda both spoke about “Teresa”, and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was referred to as the president of his country.
But coming amid reports Trump will pull the United States out of a global climate deal, the “covfefe” phenomenon illustrated how his Twitter habit can divert attention from his policy agenda.
His off-the-cuff tweets can have a real impact, influencing relations with key allies like Germany, sending a major company’s stock plummeting or riling Washington on issues like the FBI probe into Russian meddling in US politics.
The Republican president has said using Twitter helps him speak directly to Americans and bypass the media, which he has long criticised.
‘I’m moving on’
Nevertheless, the communications team appears to have given up. Rather than try to spin Trump’s sometimes contradictory views, they have turned to just praising the president and repeating what he says.
In early May, Spicer – whose job is believed to be in the balance – began responding to journalists’ questions by saying things like “The tweet speaks for itself. I’m moving on.”
And rather than try to interpret Trump’s controversial remarks in Riyadh, Jerusalem, Brussels, and Sicily last week, White House aides took to simply lauding his first trip abroad as “extraordinary” and “historic.”
“It shows how quickly and decisively the president is acting to strengthen alliances, to form new partnerships, and to rebuild America’s standing in the world,” Spicer said. (Agencies)
