Trump’s guilty verdict shares a date with his most infamous typo

It’s a news story which will indisputably go down in US political history: Donald Trump has become the first person who has served as president of the United States to be hit with a criminal conviction – after a jury found him guilty on 34 counts relating to the falsification of business records to hide hush money payments.

Trump denied the charges against him, which revolve around alleged payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election, but the 12 jurors convicted him in a unanimous decision announced on Thursday night.

And it’s now been noted that the conviction – which Trump is expected to contest – falls on the seventh anniversary of one of his most infamous tweets during his administration.

“Despite the negative press covfefe,” he tweeted on 31 May 2017, soon sending the internet into overdrive not just over what the Republican intended to write in the since-deleted tweet (it’s likely to have been ‘coverage’), but how the new word is supposed to be pronounced.

The Independentalso wrote an article suggesting what message he was trying to send, too.

The Republican managed to see the funny side to his typo, as he posted hours later: “Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’??? Enjoy!”

While the original tweet has disappeared, social media fans can rejoice that the follow-up is still available online – even after Trump’s account was suspended from Twitter in January 2021 and reinstated in November 2022 when billionaire Elon Musk bought the platform.

Save for one tweet in August 2023 when he posted a picture with the words “never surrender” and his mugshot showing him… *ahem*… surrendering himself to authorities, Trump hasn’t used Twitter and has instead opted for his own social network, Truth Social.

Nevertheless, Twitter/X users have celebrated ‘Covfefe Day’ coinciding with Trump’s conviction:

While the date in 2017 saw him rant about “negative press”, 30 May in 2024 saw him fume at a “rigged” jury verdict and claim he is a “very innocent man”.

He added: ““We have a country that’s in big trouble, but this was a rigged decision right from day one, with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case.

“And we’ll keep fighting - we’ll fight till the end and we’ll win because our country has gone to hell. We don’t have the same country anymore; we have a divided mess.

“We’re a nation in decline, serious decline, millions and millions of people pouring into our country right now, from prisons and from mental institutions, terrorists, and they’re taking over our country.”

A sentencing hearing has been set for 11 July.

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