White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer drew widespread laughter from reporters when he insisted that President Donald Trump’s infamous “covfefe” tweet was not a misspelling. After one reporter asked Spicer if “people should be concerned that the president posted somewhat of an incoherent tweet last night,” Spicer simply replied, “No.” The reporter then asked Spicer why the misspelled tweet stayed up for so long. “The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant,” Spicer replied, which elicited laughter throughout the room. Reporters then tried to ask Spicer what “covfefe” actually means, but he quickly moved on to another question.
However, reporters were relentless in their intention to get the press secretary to reveal more on the subject, if for anything, to have a few more laughs. Spicer then turned to his usual rant about how Donald Trump is persecuted by mainstream media. “You know, I really have to tell you, this is getting old,” Spicer said. “This is just another attempt by the media to bash on President Trump and everything he’s trying to do for this country – you know it and I know it. And I get that it’s your job to make sure to have sought-after topics to write about and make the headlines and ultimately get likes and shares and whatnot, but I wonder, do you ever ask yourself where the line is? There has to be a line you people aren’t willing to tread, even in your line of work.”
The press secretary then turned to defending the president’s tweet. “You don’t realize how much this is all playing into Donald Trump’s hand, this is exactly what he’s after. He’s that smart, believe me,” he said. “If you just think about it, it’s virtually impossible for a man who’s built an empire worth billions of dollars to do something like this by sheer accident because he, what, couldn’t see the keyboard and tapped on the wrong letters? If that’s what you think, then you honestly don’t deserve to be sitting here and doing the job you’re doing. Far be it for me to put words into his mouth, but you know just as well as I that the president is very calculated and that he knows what he’s doing every step of the way. So, ask yourself if it was really an accident.”
“My point is – it’s beyond whether or not it happened intentionally. Many of you may not like it, but the fact is that Donald Trump is the head of state and as such, it is within his legal right and power to decide how words in the English language are spelled, written, conjugated and all that good stuff. We have a beautiful language, but the thing about languages is – they’re living, breathing organisms. They change and they evolve along with the people who speak them, so it’s a natural progression. I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘covfefe’ turns up on Wikipedia or in dictionaries in schools throughout America as early as tomorrow. Because, that’s just one of the many perks of being President of the United States. It comes with the territory and it’s up to you to decide whether or not you want to use it,” Spicer concluded.
