COVFEFE Act Would Make All Presidential Tweets Official Records

"Covfefe" was the tweet seen ‘round the world in late May, and President Donald Trump’s typo (or was it?) inspired legislation that would expand the Presidential Records Act.

Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., introduced Monday the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement Act that would amend the Presidential Records Act to archive posts made on the president’s personal social media accounts. The COVFEFE Act, then, contains language that would have archived for future generations Trump’s deleted covfefe tweet.

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“In order to maintain public trust in government, elected officials must answer for what they do and say; this includes 140-character tweets,” Quigley said in a statement. “President Trump’s frequent, unfiltered use of his personal Twitter account as a means of official communication is unprecedented. If the president is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference. Tweets are powerful, and the president must be held accountable for every post.”

The National Archives currently documents and stores postings from the president’s @POTUS account, but Quigley said the president’s choice to use his personal account as the “de facto account for government business” merits new policy. Quigley’s statement referenced White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s response that the president’s tweets are official statements following the covfefe kerfuffle as an additional reason why tweets must be stored.

“The president is president of the United States so they are considered official statements by the president of the United States,” Spicer said.