It is assumed to be a misspelling. The best guess is that Trump was trying to type "coverage". Of note is that it was sent something like 12:15 AM, hence the meaning "Go to bed".

It means "I got you to look at me! Neah neah na neah neah!" aka "Tu m'as vu !"

It was not pronounced: it was tweeted, and it was spelled "covfefe", presumably a misspelled coverage.

how do you know he doesn't have some speech-to-text device for tweeting?

I have not seen "kerfuffle" proposed as the intended word, and it is not one that would instantly come to mind. It is, however, a valid possibility. If so it is certainly an example of something that is self-reflexive.

I agree with @HotLicks that this makes for a perfect double-meaning. I've already seen headlines referring to the "covfefe kerfuffle." But context and NLP dictionaries would probably rule that out as the intended meaning either in speech or texting

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is predicated on a typo.

It would be interesting to collect all of Trump's tweets (if there is sufficient storage in The Cloud) and sort out which unique words he's used. Maybe also throw in text he's known to have spoken. It's unlikely that he'd attempt to use "kerfuffle" if he's never used it before.

@HotLicks such a database exists, and has no hits for "kerfuffle": factba.se

@RaceYouAnytime - Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any way to use wildcards or search alphabetically.

@grovkin there are clear differences between his speaking style and his tweeting style

Not quite an answer, but please note that the person saying "Covfefe is Yiddish for 'I need to go to bed now'" is Al Franken, who was famous as a comedian before he was elected to the senate. I don't think he meant to be taken seriously.

@EdwinAshworth I have some sympathy with that assumption -- but it is an assumption. We also have quite a few questions on the meanings of typos.

@Chris H It seems more than a bare assumption (see the quotes in Josh's answer). 'It's too early to tell for sure' in RaceYouAnytime's answer would show that the POB nature of the question is another CV reason. ELU deals with accepted usage.

Saying that covfefe was simply a typing mistake does not suffice anymore since White House speaker Sean Spicer said on 31/05/2017 that "the president and a number of people exactly know" what it means. And who would dare to believe that the speaker of the White House does not tell the truth? - For an exhaustive collection of interpretations of covfefe see the comments section underneath this article in the Guardian: theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/31/… – Christian Geiselmann 1 hour ago

It might be connected to a misspelling of the foreign word : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confit Confit as a cooking term describes when food is cooked in grease, oil or sugar water (syrup), at a lower temperature, as opposed to deep frying.

To close voters. I protest your judgement.The question which attracted 114k views and earned 28 up-votes in a single day was closed under the "stale" pretext of OFFTOPIC by five votes. Is it The Democracy Anglophones pride? Have you ever posted a question / answer scoring 114k views in a single day (now 132k a day after)? Are 28 up-voters and 125,100 users (80 %, four fifth! of all EL&U users, now 85% a day after) ) - which Josh said unbelievable, - who were interested in this question all nuts? I'm sorry for many, many, many users who have visited and favored my question,

Cont. and am angry for your betraying majority (85%) of the users simply by brandishing a narrow-minded OFF TOPIC flag. With that said, I'm convinced this question will be reopened shortly based on my past experience and record. The view is still building up every minute, as if laughing at anachronistic Close votes, though I'm not saying Close voters..

Whether or not a question is popular is quite irrelevant in determining if it's on-topic @YoichiOishi (not saying it's not, just saying that your stated reason isn't a very good one).

@Carpetsmoker. O.K. 132k view is irrelevant to on/off topic issue. But 28 upvoters valued this question valid. They didn't think this question off-topic and worthless, while five users judged it off-topic and to be discarded. Why all major journals and TVs pick up this particular word, when it's off topic. There should be a certain reason for media and you arguing this word, provided it's a misspelling. It's easy to blow out or kill a post by caliing it's off-topic. When you start saying "off topic," every word can be off topic to those who are not interested in.

Cont. Even President Trump is off-topic to Americans who disregard him. But note that there are many people, users who are interested in his word, which is absolutely on-topic to them. I think the abuse of the word, "off topic" always withers interest and motivation of users.

@YoichiOishi - You need to understand that being on-topic or off-topic here should not be a popularity contest. This forum is about the English language, and the only really legitimate question here is "what does 'covfefe' mean?" If indeed it is a misspelling, the question might be reasonably extended to ask "what word was misspelled?" But once that gets to be random conjecture and all sorts of manufactured meanings it's definitely drifted into off-topic territory. As much as I love to chat this is not a chat room.

Though I suppose I've got to grudgingly admit that when a word is spawning other words such as covfefify then it gains a bit more legitimacy.

@Hot Licks. I clearly confirmed that on/off topic issue has nothing to do with popularrity in my comment to Carpet smoker. I'm pointing out the number of up-votes and favorite votes which should reflect users' evaluation of quality and relevance of the post to EL&U users. The fact that the post was reopend only after a few hours it was put to hold proves worthiness of posting this question, which are the focus of American public and non-Americans like me on the other side of the earth right now.

covfefe is a word typed in by a tired president who fell asleep half-way through typing the word "coverage". After typing "cov" his fingers - SUCH SMALL FINGERS! - wandered into the "e-r-f" triangle on the standard keyboard and began twitching randomly, striking the "f-e-f-e" sequence. Without consciously realizing what he was doing he managed to hit the "send" button. Parents who have conked out while reading a story to their youngsters will recognize this as the equivalent of the incoherent babbling sounds they make just before falling asleep.

Based on a true typo: Covfefe in theatres near you. youtu.be/5zuagdAF4Is

It is a shorthand for "cow feces" i.e. "bullshit".

I am quite a bit surprised to the fact that a diamond user doesn't understand why this question was reasonably considered off-topic by several reviewers...

@Andrea Lazzotto.. I'm greatly surprised to the fact 34 users up-voted, 7 users found this question favorite to the question what you call off-topic. The word is the focus of topic around the world. Most of mass media in U.S. kept wasting time and space on this word. Why are they interested in the word, which is off-topic. Why did EL&U users looked into this question 200,000 times, which is 29% more than the total of registered EL&U users? Are all of them persons of leisure and "nutsboy," or the ignorant who cannot tell off-topic from on-topic?

I won't spend time replying to your rude and arrogant statements, I'd just point out what has already been explained to you before: the fact that some people find this question interesting does not mean it's on topic. I routinely find questions on SE sites that are quite interesting but don't belong to where they have been asked. "covfefe" is not an English word. Hell, it's not even a word, it's a sequence of mistyped random characters like dsgadgaga or ytkyujrtqg.

@Andrea Lazzarotto. Neither I want to waste time in wasteful discussion. Yes, it was a typo. Nobody would care my typo. But when it's a typo made by a prominent person like the President of the United Sates of America, it matters. "Covefefe" was uttered / writen in no other than English language context by English speaking dignity, not in French, German, Russian, Greek, Japanese Chinese, or Jawanese. It's clearly "English," no other than any other languages, and no matter whether it's intended or typo. What else the language could be? It spreads worldwide and starts to get a new meaning.

Cont: Don't cling to a scholastic mantra of "OFF-TOPIC." Of course, there are different views as you have. As you may know, my question was once closed on the pretext of off-topic, but it was reopened immediately after being put on hold. It means there are people who judge it on topic. Reverently, your view and your interpretation arn't necessarily a universal one. There are liberals and conservatives in the world on on /off topic matter, particularly in this site. YMMV. I'm sick'n tired repeating the same argument for a these couple of days. Take it easy, boys. I'll keep my mouth shut here.

I'm voting not to close this question, as it is only presumed to be a typo.

Too bad I don't have the rep to add the Yiddish origin of the word, which may be only slightly misspelled. newsketeer.blogspot.com/2017/06/…

Not a word at all, let alone an English word. There is no research to do or authority to consult. There is no way this can be answered by anyone, at all, ever. If it belonged anywhere it would be on se.politics, maybe.

I voted to close as off-topic because if you read any of the first page of Google results you would a) already have as much of an answer as you can get here; b) realise that the question is pointless. It's popular because people enjoy mocking an idiot, not because it's a good question.

@PeterTaylor on the same day that the word was teeeted, I doubt hat there were that many pages dedicated on its meaning. HOWEVER, the OP seemed not to have read the original WP article in its entirety, because the news reporter made it crystal clear that it is (still) meaningless. And it is for omitting this information from the OP that I cast my vote to close it. I have many times in the past defended the OP's questions, but he should abide by the same guidelines as everyone else.

Lots of typos above, I'm on a new laptop with a different keyboard. Oops!

I upvote this question because it's nicely presented. But I do think this question is off topic because it's merely about a misspelling. Sad to see that this question remains on topic on ELU. I think I came across a similar question on ELL and it closed immediately by a moderator.

@MariLouA if this question stays open, I am going to open a new one for each typo in the comments. :D