美国国家公共电台 NPR The Tweet Heard Around The Wrold

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The word of the week is covfefe. Ask your doctor about covfefe. (Singing) Say it loud, and there's music playing. Say it's soft, and it's almost like praying - covfefe.

12:06 a.m. Wednesday morning, President Trump¹ tweeted, despite the constant negative press covfefe - and nothing more. Twitter runnethed (ph) over with questions, speculation², GIFs and jokes, which we won't repeat because if there's anything worse than fake news in the news business, it's old jokes. Several people ran the word through translation software and briefly³ reported that covfefe Samoan, which Samoans say it's not. I entered covfefe into a rhyme generator⁴ - no match, but Mojave and Gadhafi are rated as close. Way out o'er the sands of the Mojave, the winds whip and whisper covfefe.

President Trump deleted his tweet at 5:50 a.m. Just after 6 a.m., he posted a new message. Who can figure out the true meaning of covfefe, he wrote - followed by three question marks - enjoy.

Like a lot of people, I assumed the president meant to type a complaint about negative press coverage⁵, but his fingers misfired and tapped out covfefe. Who among us hasn't committed a typo? It's happened to you. It's happened to me. It's probably happened to J.K. Rowling. But John Spicer, the White House press secretary, who told reporters after President Trump was inaugurated this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration⁶ period - which it was not - and once uttered a horrifying⁷ gaffe⁸ that twisted the history of the Holocaust⁹ - seemed unwilling¹⁰ to accept that President Trump could be wrong about even a typo. He told reporters who asked about covfefe the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant. The problem with trying to put a happy face on a gaffe is that it can pump air into wild and ludicrous theories.

Late this week, some of President Trump's supporters insisted on social media that his covfefe was actually a shrewd and subtle presidential invocation of an ancient Arabic term for standing¹¹ up against an attack. Language experts say it's not.

But I'd like to try another explanation. Tweets travel at twice the speed of light - please don't check that, by the way. Covfefe may be a signal President Trump sent this week in the middle of the night when he thought no one on Earth would notice to the people on a planet that is light years from our own. Reporters may wonder, but the people on Covfefe know the president was saying, do you see any greenhouse gasses down here?

(SOUNDBITE OF PAUL TANNER'S "MIDNIGHT SUN")

SIMON: Ah, covfefe. You're listening to NPR News.