Leave it to Donald Trump to keep Twitter guessing. Just after midnight Eastern this morning, the president did what the president often does at odd hours: He sent out a tweet. But this one, rather than attacking a political opponent or offering up a 140-character policy position, just plain made no sense: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.” Wait, “covfefe”? No one knew what it meant. Surely it was a mistake that the president would soon delete. But after five minutes, he didn’t. Then a few more passed. Before long, social media was in a mad dash to try to define Trump’s typo. News reports followed, and soon a five-alarm internet fire was burning.

When Trump was elected last fall, the not-so-funny joke on 4chan was that the United States had “elected a meme as president.” This has never felt more true than in the past couple weeks, as images of Trump touching a glowing orb and standing with an unthrilled Pope Francis have become widely Photoshopped and turned into the stuff of LOLs. Unwittingly or not, the president is always good for providing an opportunity for slightly Dadaist humor—tweeting “covfefe” in the middle of the night is just the latest example of that.

But President Trump’s latest Twitter faux pas didn’t just provide the internet something to laugh at, it played to its greatest strength: Giving meaning to the meaningless. Nearly every great meme starts with an obscure word, hashtag, or image that is then granted humor based on what the internet does with it. “On fleek,” “Damn, Daniel,” Kermit sipping tea—all of these things have meanings given to them by people online. In fact, creating and spreading new language is one of social media’s greatest skill sets. So when the president tweeted “covfefe,” everyone’s brains and fingers were primed to dive in.

And so they did. A few hours after “covfefe” consumed the internet, Trump finally deleted the tweet and attempted to wave it off with a self-deprecating follow-up that simply read, “Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’ ??? Enjoy!”

Figure out the true meaning? Oh, the internet is on that.

"Of course #covfefe is real word. It was coined during the Bowling Green Massacre." pic.twitter.com/DYjqX1xE7M

— Diane N. Sevenay (@Diane_7A) May 31, 2017

Help, @MerriamWebster. #Covfefe pic.twitter.com/K7JcYusJSC

— Jessica Taylor (@JessicaTaylor) May 31, 2017

Wakes up.
Checks Twitter.
.
.
.
Uh…
.
.
.
📈 Lookups fo…
.
.
.
Regrets checking Twitter.
Goes back to bed.

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) May 31, 2017

'No, it's still there 😂😂😂' #covfefe pic.twitter.com/yndPf2yThG

— bilal (@TheInterdiction) May 31, 2017

In fairness, you get some positive covfefe from Breitfef, FOX & Ferfs, and Milo Fefenefellfef as well. https://t.co/3X30gmefJ2

— Jazz Twemlow (@JazzTwemlow) May 31, 2017

It's been 22 minutes. I think he meant covfefe.

— Zach Braff (@zachbraff) May 31, 2017

Covfefe is actually a Rita Ora single it's why y'all have never heard of it

— Ira Madison III (@ira) May 31, 2017

what makes me saddest is that I know I'll never write anything funnier than #covfefe

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) May 31, 2017

Someone made this#Covfefe pic.twitter.com/XDzvZKQtav

— Rabih Alameddine (@rabihalameddine) May 31, 2017

My favorite one so far #covfefe pic.twitter.com/zOvYE5j6gs

— Mateo (@_justmateo_) May 31, 2017

#Covfefe in the North pic.twitter.com/n5EOusJD45

— Jon Snow (@LordSnow) May 31, 2017

Who among us hasn't had an embarrassing typo blow up while casually possessing the ability to launch ~750 nukes instantaneously at whatever.

— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) May 31, 2017

This is #covfefe translated from Russian. pic.twitter.com/1Im7ZzLO0Y

— Kristina Wong ❄️ (@mskristinawong) May 31, 2017

Is this #covfefe ? pic.twitter.com/fP7G3wktxK

— SWERY (Swery65) (@Swery65) May 31, 2017

This is why I love Twitter. #covfefe
pic.twitter.com/JKJLPDF08W

— E (@esheikh_) May 31, 2017

#Trump is now being mocked on European public transport, by @Eurostar train staff. Quite a #Covfefe pic.twitter.com/ZbrYuylpBf https://t.co/8vOiLX63jO

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) May 31, 2017

#covfefe Love pic.twitter.com/kejSXHD76u

— Kari Baxter Donovan (@happit1776) May 31, 2017

Russian officials must be laughing even more at the constant negative press covfefe!#CovfefeYourself #TheBestAlternateWords #CovfefeSummer https://t.co/THFryxhtws

— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) May 31, 2017

It's happened! #Covfefe has united everyone from all across the world. To laugh and live as one.. Basically Covfefe is trumps nightmare

— Ruby Rose (@RubyRose) May 31, 2017

This tweet didn't age well. #Covfefe pic.twitter.com/xABXjW7nmv

— Reasonable People (@LOLBeReasonable) May 31, 2017

SHOW ME THE COVFEFE pic.twitter.com/2jNOoSGjAY

— Ira Madison III (@ira) May 31, 2017

He can delete it all he wants. The internet is forever. Long live #covfefe pic.twitter.com/Z4usKgB2QB

— Ramie 724 (@rachmw77) May 31, 2017

pic.twitter.com/n9uQVAfWgZ

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) May 31, 2017

"And just before you serve it, you hit it with a dash of #Covfefe" pic.twitter.com/fm9CAF4Iyz

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) May 31, 2017


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