Spicer refuses to say Trump's 'covfefe' tweet was a typo

President Donald Trump’s mysterious post to Twitter in the wee hours Wednesday morning about “constant negative press covfefe” may have sparked hours of jokes and overnight confusion, but to hear White House press secretary Sean Spicer tell it, the president’s tweet was no typo.

“The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant,” Spicer said at Wednesday’s off-camera press gaggle in the White House briefing room. He refused to elaborate and ignored questions shouted by reporters. It followed a rarely seen self-deprecating joke from Trump early Wednesday morning that made light of the typo (or newly invented word) the president had birthed hours earlier.


Trump’s comedic turn began after midnight, when he seemingly pecked out half of a thought before hitting send. “Despite the constant negative press covfefe,” the president wrote at 12:06 a.m.

And then, nothing. Trump left his followers hanging for hours, leaving the post online and unexplained as Twitter stewed with a handful of theories and an avalanche of jokes about what exactly the president was getting at. #Covfefe zoomed to the top of Twitter’s trending topics. Twitter itself created a “moment” for users to peruse the typo sensation that had consumed the platform overnight.

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Finally, the president checked in on the hurricane he had created hours earlier, hitting send on another post just after 6 a.m.: “Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’ ??? Enjoy!”

Minutes later, Trump's original tweet was deleted, his standard practice for posts with misspellings. Within a half hour, he had reverted to more well-worn ground, chiding Democrats for pursuing an investigation into potential ties between his campaign and the Russian government. He called the ongoing Russia probes a "witch hunt."

Peppered in among the thousands of replies, of course, were more covfefe jokes.