White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer claims that “a small group of people know exactly” what Donald Trump meant when the President posted a seemingly unintelligible tweet Wednesday.

President Trump sparked wild speculation and an internet frenzy when he shortly after midnight Wednesday local time, saying: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe”.

Within hours of Mr Trump’s latest attempted, and apparently aborted, attack on the media, #covfefe was trending worldwide and mentioned more than 1.4 million times.

The tweet had more than 120,000 retweets, putting it among his most retweeted, before it was deleted around six hours later.

The president seemed to make a joke about the incident several hours later, tweeting: “Who can figure out the true meaning of “covfefe” ??? Enjoy!”

Mr Spicer told reporters when asked about the tweet: “I think the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.”

The confusing tweet was online for several hours before being deleted.

The equally confusing White House explanation was too late to head off a some mercilessly fun at the 45th president’s expense.

Star Wars actor Mark Hamill said: “Russian officials must be laughing even more at the constant negative press covfefe! #CovfefeYourself #TheBestAlternateWords #CovfefeSummer”.

The Late Late Show host James Corden said: “I’m gonna try and go back to sleep now. Everyone stay #covfefe”.

Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel tweeted: “What makes me saddest is that I know I’ll never write anything funnier than #covfefe”.

At video interview with IT website Recode, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has her own explanation.

“I thought it was a hidden message to the Russians,” Mrs Clinton said, to laughter from the audience.

Others suggested the tweet had taken the pressure off US comedian Kathy Griffin, who earlier came under fire for posting a video in which she held a replica of Trump’s severed bloody head.

https://twitter.com/laurenreeves/status/869776148355358720

A poll by US website Fusion, voted on more than 43,000 times, was split over the correct pronunciation – 38 per cent suggested it was Cov-FEE-fee while 36 per cent favoured Cov-FEH-fay and just 26 per cent went with Cov-feef.

Google Translate automatically detects covfefe is Samoan – the English, Spanish and even Arabic translation of which is also covfefe.

The word quickly earned entries on Urban Dictionary, with the top definition below.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary regretted weighing into the issue.

Wakes up.
Checks Twitter.
.
.
.
Uh…
.
.
.
📈 Lookups fo…
.
.
.
Regrets checking Twitter.
Goes back to bed.

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) May 31, 2017

Some, however, did not see the funny side.

American model Chrissy Teigen said: “I just no longer find trump trending topics or memes funny. I get sad and angry and depressed. F*** covfefe, f*** it all, stupid idiot.”

– With agencies