One word was close to breaking the internet on Wednesday morning: “covfefe”.

It was an apparent typo in a tweet by US President Donald Trump, and internet users have been mocking him mercilessly.

“Despite the constant negative press covfefe,” he tweeted just after midnight, Washington time.

And then appears to have gone to bed, without finishing his thought or correcting his mistake.

Although it seems likely the word he was reaching for was “coverage”, social media users have been trying to guess other alternatives or motivations.

Others deliberated on the pronunciation, and wondered why no aides had stepped into to alert him to the mistake.

Google Translate recognised the word as Samoan, though could not offer no English translation.

No time was wasted as some users put the word on a T-shirt, which they started to sell on eBay.

Someone also appears to have bought the domain name, covfefe.us.

Donald Trump’s covfefe tweet below:

Peoples reaction to Donald Trump’s covfefe tweet below: